Kairos Blanket Exercise touches the heart of 800 youth

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY—A mass Kairos Blanket Exercise (KBE) was held with about 800 youth participants on Aug. 16 during the Canadian Lutheran Anglican Youth (CLAY) 2018 gathering at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

“This is the biggest one that I’ve participated in,” says Beatrice Twance-Hynes, a Biigtigong Nishnaabeg citizen who provided support and facilitated one of the circles during the KBE. “The last one here at the university was maybe 30 people.”

The KBE was an opportunity for the youth to learn about the history and experiences of Indigenous people since contact.

“And also to feel that emotion,” Twance-Hynes says. “Putting themselves in the place of our people in what they experienced and how our people felt.”

The KBE was held at the Lakehead University Hangar, with blankets spread out across most of the turf area of the track and field building.

“When they are stepping onto the blanket, they are stepping into the role of Indigenous people,” says Sheila Karasiewicz, a Fort William citizen who also provided support and facilitated one of the circles during the KBE. “We are going through the history — it is an interactive exercise, so there will be scrolls read for each of the different time periods of history. People will be removed from the blanket at the various stages as history evolves.”

Ed Bianchi, program manager with Kairos Canada, says this was the second time that a group of 800 people participated in a KBE.

“Considering that it had that many people, I think it went really well,” Bianchi says. “There were pretty strong emotions in the crowd as we were going through the script. For that reason, we had a cultural support, a health support team ready standing by and I saw that they were busy. I think that is an indication that people were listening to the script and that it was having an impact.”

Charlotte Lilley, a youth participant from Cambridge, Ont., says the moment when a large group of the participants were asked to step aside because they had died from communicable diseases “made it real” for the participants.

“It is a really good illustration and a really different way of looking at issues that you might read about or you might hear about but that you don’t really understand the scope of,” Lilley says, noting that this was the second time she had participated in the KBE. “I did one with a much smaller group of people in my home town, and I think it is just interesting to see the size and the scale when you do it with this many people and how that changes how people are interacting with it.”

Phillip Penrod, a member of the national planning committee for CLAY 2018 and an ordained minister with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada, says the audio-visual person commented that he had never seen so many youth quiet for such a long period.

“Kairos has done a fantastic job building an experience that I think touches the head and the heart and the hands, which is very engaging for people of all ages,” Penrod says.

Clifford Mushquash, a Pays Plat citizen who also provided support and facilitated one of the circles during the KBE, says it was educational for the youth.

“I have participated in a Kairos Blanket Exercise previously as a participant myself and I think it is a fantastic exercise,” Mushquash says. “I really do think that everybody, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, can benefit from participating in this exercise.”