This year, residents of Bradford West Gwillimbury are invited to mark National Truth and Reconciliation Day with a guided program that uses a blanket to wrap participants in Indigenous history and culture.
The Simcoe County Historical Association (SSHA), in partnership with the Tecumseth and West Gwillimbury Historical Society (TWGH), invites the public to participate in a KAIROS Blanket Exercise to commemorate National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30 at the Tec-Wi-Gwill Hall in Newton Robinson, 4830 Line 10, Bradford West Gwillimbury.
The event will begin with a light meal. Rachel Crawford-Rending and Patricia James will lead the Blanket Exercise.
SSHA secretary and chair of programming, Donna Wice, said, “The meal offers every attendee the chance to relax, break bread and de-escalate from the hustle and bustle of ordinary life as we know it before we enter a time of total focus on many aspects of our past that are complete opposites to now. SCHA is providing the repast.”
Crawford-Rending is the director of payroll for the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC.) She serves on the RBC Royal Eagles Elder Council, offering strategic advice on Indigenous protocol and culture and mentoring both Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals.
Her spirit name is Zhawaashgiwi Kigilzhiiba Nimoniikwe – Blue Morning Dancer. She is Algonquin from the Bear clan.
Patricia James was the minister at St. James United Church for 10 years.
Her training as a designated lay minister triggered an increased awareness of First Nations and Indigenous history, which led her to take the training for the KAIROS Blanket Exercise from the Native Friendship Centre in Barrie.
According the KAIROS website its mission states, “We are Indigenous, settlers and newcomers in Canada working with people of faith or conscience all over the world for ecological justice and human rights.”
The KAIROS Blanket Exercise (KBE) is an interactive way to learn about Canada’s history from the perspective of Indigenous Peoples.
It was developed in response to the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, by the Aboriginal Rights Coalition which became part of KAIROS in 2001.
The exercise invites participants to step on blankets representing the land and into the role of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.
The KBE website explains, “The trained facilitators, including Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, 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.”
The first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation was September 30, 2021. The Canadian Heritage website explains, “The day honours the children who never returned home and survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.”
It also explains, “Orange Shirt Day is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters.”
Orange Shirt Society began honouring this day in 2013.
As many groups did, Wice said the SSHA conscientiously laboured over the creation of their land acknowledgement statements. The group wanted to do more, and commemorating National Day of Truth and Reconciliation jumped to the fore.
She said, “The blanket exercise takes the wraps off the whole situation, that is now down to the facts of what happened over many decades, even centuries.”
Please RSVP to Donna Wice if you intend to come to the event on Monday in Newton Robinson: [email protected]
Orange Shirts designed by Two-Spirit Ojibwe artist, Patrick Hunter, are available at Giant Tiger Stores and on its online. Proceeds from the shirts sold at Giant Tiger are donated to Indspire, in support of the Learning from the Past Fund. This fund provides bursaries to Indigenous post-secondary students pursuing an education in Indigenous Studies and Languages.
Rosaleen Egan is a freelance writer, storyteller, and playwright. She blogs on her website rosiewrites.ca
