KUC hosted a “Blanket Exercise” Saturday, December 5th, from 2 PM until 4:30 PM in the Church Sanctuary.  This interactive learning experience teaches the Indigenous rights history we’re rarely taught. Originally developed by Kairos in response to the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, recommended education on Canadian-Indigenous history as one of the key steps to reconciliation.  The recently released Truth and Reconciliation Summary Report also recommends further education on First Nations History.  See TRC Summary for further information.

Blanket Exercise participants took on the roles of Indigenous peoples in Canada. as readers covered a time of over 500 years.  Standing on blankets that represent the land, they walked through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance. Participants were directed by facilitators representing narrators and the European colonizers, and by reading scrolls and carrying cards which ultimately determined their outcomes.  For more details on the blanket exercise process,visit  http://kairosblanketexercise.org/

Following the exercise, we discussed the experience in a talking circle.

Ian McLean, KUCs leader of “Aboriginal Relations”ministry at KUC, with the “scrolls of history” and blankets representing the territories/lands of First Nations peoples.

Ian, as “the European”. At the left side of the photo is a “star blanket”, a gift to Karen McC when she worked with First Nations peoples in northern Manitoba.

Ian introducing our Aboriginal guests: Elder Mike Arnouse, Daryll Laboucan and Jeffrey Mcneil-Seymour.

A welcome to traditional territory was given by Jeffrey Mcneil-Seymour, Professor at TRU.

Tradition drumming and singing were offered by Daryll Laboucan, Cultural Education Coordinator at the Kamloops Aboriginal Friendship Society.

Gifts of gratitude and respect were given to our Aboriginal guests.

Gifts are offered.

Traditional territories decrease in size (symbolized by missing and folded blankets).

Participants act out the history.