THUNDER BAY - Today’s youth are learning the history of Indigenous peoples much differently than generations prior.
There’s no better example than the Kairos blanket exercise, which took place in Lakehead University’s Hangar on Thursday.
Eight hundred youth aged 13 to 19 making it the world’s largest youth mass blanket exercise - took part in the historical and interactive teaching which symbolizes the history of colonialism in Canada.
“We’ve been doing this exercise for about 20 years,” Ed Bianchi explained. “People are just shocked about how much information they didn’t get before.”
Ed Bianchi is the program manager at Kairos whose helped work to refine the exercise since 1996.
Kairos is a religious organization that works to promote ecological justice and human rights.
The exercise began with hundreds of teens standing on a field covered in blankets.
“The blankets represent the land… Canada as it first was before settlers came.” Bianchi said. “As we go through the history and the land is taken away, we represent that through folding the blankets and taking them away.”
The exercise goes through many important historical moments such as the first contact with the British and French, the war of 1812, the Indian Act, and the era of residential schools.
In the end, only a small amount of blankets remain. It symbolizes the reserve system, which comprises about one half of a percent of Canada’s land mass.
“Sometimes there’s anger… I’ve heard young guys say ‘Yeah right, just get over it and move on.’” community elder Jerry Martin said on what he has heard in past experiences.
“It’s not that simple for us… It’s the most pervasive thing that’s happened to North American aboriginal people since contact, and we’re just in the beginning phases of truth and reconciliation.”
The 800 participants come from all across Canada as members of the Anglican and Lutheran church.
Ordained minister Phillip Penrod said the event is life-changing.
“How they relate to other people, other genders, or races… the main theme of our gathering is to recognize the diversity. For us as Christians that has deep spiritual roots, that’s our avenue into this story.”
“As Canadians, we’re all treaty people on one side or the other,” Martin said. “We have to develop that new relationship.”
