On Friday, October 21, students from the McMaster Chaplaincy will be travelling to St. Jerome’s in Waterloo with their chaplain, to participate in a Chaplaincy-wide event: the KAIROS Blanket Exercise

The KAIROS Blanket Exercise is an experiential teaching tool based on participatory popular education methodology and the major themes and findings of the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Final Report and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report.

In the in-person experience, participants step onto blankets representing the land, and into the role of First Nations, Inuit and later Métis peoples. Facilitators read the script and assume the role of Narrator and European explorers and settlers.

The virtual experience replicates and deepens the experience through unique and interactive storytelling which engages participants on a meaningful level. Many participants have indicated that this experience is just as effective as the in-person sessions if not more.

The Kairos Blanket Exercise builds awareness and understanding of our shared history as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada by having participants literally walk through situations that include pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance. Participants are drawn into their roles by reading scrolls and carrying cards which ultimately determine their outcomes. By engaging on an emotional and intellectual level, the KAIROS Blanket Exercise effectively educates while increasing empathy. It reaches both the mind and the heart. It is a foundational step to a movement for reconciliation across the country.