It’s easy to read about history, but sometimes the impact doesn’t quite translate through words alone. If there is a way to experience history, it might give greater weight to the events that occur. The KAIROS Blanket Exercise is a way to express the history of Indigenous people in Canada through role-play and the use of a physical space.
The exercise begins with everyone in the room in a circle, standing on blankets that represent the land they can walk on. Everyone also has passages to read, a card that represents something that will happen later in the exercise, dolls to represent children, and props to represent goods to trade.
As the exercise goes on, the blankets get smaller, the number of people standing in the circle gets smaller, and things are taken away. By the end, there are only a few people standing on blankets that don’t extend beyond their feet.
After the exercise is complete, everyone is asked to share what the experience meant to them and how it made them feel.
The goal of the exercise is understanding, whether that means understanding the history of Canada’s First Nations or understanding the emotions of the people in the room who also participated in the exercise.
Gerald Whitehead, who presented the event with Iris Acoose, says it’s a remarkable exercise because it opens the eyes of people, not just First Nations but also non-First Nations people who participate.
“We can slowly work together in recognizing where we came from and where we need to go.”
The interactive element of the exercise is part of the reason why Whitehead believes it’s effective, because it does provide a much more immediate experience of history than other ways of learning.
“As First Nations people, sometimes we learn visually more than we do from paper. It’s more of a learning experience when you interact in a positive way rather than sitting and learning at a desk.”
The goal of the exercise in general is to get people to work together and get along, something Whitehead laments that people have forgotten to do.
“It’s an ongoing process, we have to work together and get along. Initially, our grandparents did. Our great-grandfathers communicated with one another and helped one another 100 years ago. Something happened over time, and we have to re-connect that.”
