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It’s a history lesson you’ll never forget.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, 6-9 pm, the Gibsons Public Library hosts a KAIROS Blanket Exercise: Reconciliation through Education and Understanding. This unique participatory history lesson – developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers, and educators – fosters truth, understanding, respect and reconciliation among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
This exercise was developed by KAIROS Canada in response to the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report and since then has been offered thousands of times across the country. The goal of the exercise, as described by KAIROS, is to “build understanding about our shared history as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada by walking through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance.”
Participants begin by stepping onto blankets, which represent the land, and into the role of First Nations, Inuit and later Metis peoples. Local facilitators Nancy Denham and John Denham then guide participants on this journey through four hundred years’ history of colonization and the resilience of Indigenous peoples in the face of ongoing injustice. The event will be witnessed by Christine Baker and residential school survivors Robert Baker (Ki yowil) and Shirley Toman (Humteya) of the Squamish Nation.
“By engaging on an emotional and intellectual level, the Blanket Exercise effectively educates and increases empathy,” says KAIROS.
The Gibsons Public Library wishes to acknowledge that the lands on which our event takes place lie in the unceded and ancestral territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nation.
This event is suitable for ages 10+ (children should be accompanied by a parent/guardian). Pre-registration required. Call the library at 604.886.2130 to sign up.
