In-progress Blanket Exercise in Toronto (photo courtesy of KAIROS Blanket Exercise website).
October 1, 2025
A KAIROS Blanket Exercise at Mawita'mk in We’koqma’q is happening on Wednesday, October, 15th at 9:30am.
This gathering was made possible thanks to Rosie Sylliboy connecting Raising the Villages with Karen Bernard, and extending an invitation to our community partners and friends to join them in this special opportunity to learn together.
Karen has been facilitating these KAIROS workshops for a number of years and with multiple sectors, departments, organizations, and communities across NS.
What Is the KAIROS Blanket Exercise?
Developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and educators, the KAIROS Blanket Exercise (KBE) is an interactive and experiential teaching tool that explores the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the land we now know as Canada.
During this 2 to 3 hour workshop, participants step on blankets representing the land and into the role of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. They are guided by trained facilitators, including Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, who work from a script that covers pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization, resistance, and much more. Participants read scrolls and respond to cues in the script. The KBE concludes with a debriefing, conducted as a talking circle, during which participants discuss the learning experience, process their feelings, ask questions, share insights, and deepen their understanding.
Over the past two decades, thousands of KAIROS Blanket Exercises have been delivered in Canada and around the world, including in the United States, Central and South America, Europe, and Australia. By engaging participants on both emotional and intellectual levels, the KBE both educates and creates empathy and understanding.
