The blanket exercise is set up to demonstrate how colonialism affected Indigenous communities all over Canada in an interactive manner.
The official website describes it as follows:
“The Blanket Exercise is based on using Indigenous methodologies and the goal 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. Everyone is actively involved as they step onto blankets that represent the land, and into the role of First Nations, Inuit and later Métis peoples. By engaging on an emotional and intellectual level, the Blanket Exercise effectively educates and increases empathy.”
– The official website can be accessed at the bottom of this Blog post.
This was the second time I was a part of the blanket exercise. It never gets easier but it does teach you new things. Thank you Dr Sims and Dr Ho Younghusband for facilitating the exercise.
The exercise also allows us to hear the history of colonization without needing to have an Indigenous person relive their trauma to hear the stories. The interactive nature of the exercise also gives you a realism that reading history cannot. It has taught me more empathy and to understand things I would never know or experience myself.
The sharing circle at the end always provides you with insight into how your peers process the tragedies that happened to Indigenous communities. It is a great way to get close to people and open up a hard conversation. The continuous racist and oppressive behaviour that still affects Indigenous people systemically cannot disappear if we do not understand the generational trauma that they endure. Exercises like this help us move forward toward reconciliations. There is no way we can reconcile with something we have not faced or understood.
If you ever have an opportunity to be a part of the exercise with your community members, family, coworkers, or anyone you are close with, take the opportunity immediately! It is even better if you reach out and facilitate the exercise yourself! I guarantee that it will bring you closer to the circle of people and to the Indigenous communities around you.