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Community blanket exercise coming to town

A group of local people are looking for reservations for the KAIROS Blanket Exercise they are hosting Wednesday, April 24 at the Athabasca Seniors Centre.

A group of local people are looking for reservations for the KAIROS Blanket Exercise they are hosting Wednesday, April 24 at the Athabasca Seniors Centre.

A total of 50 spots are available for the exercise, and anyone in the community is welcome to attend. Displays along with soup and bannock will be on the table at 5 p.m. as the gathering begins. The exercise and debriefing talking circle will take place from 6-8:30 p.m.

Alma Swan is the First Nations, Métis, Inuit family school liaison for Aspen View Public Schools. As one of the facilitators of the exercise, she said its purpose is to do a walkthrough of the history of Canada as it pertains to First Nations people.

"How the residential schools have impacted, and the loss of land, the loss of identity, the loss of family — to have such a small inkling of what that feels like," she said. "For some people, that's very difficult, through lived experience."

She said the exercise is not about making anybody feel bad or guilty, and it is not about anyone taking responsibility for what happened in the past.

"It's about how do we come together and learn this history, and how do we move forward," she said. "When I facilitate a blanket exercise, that's how I want to walk through this with people."

According to the KAIROS Blanket Exercise website, the program is a unique, interactive and participatory history lesson developed in 1997 in collaboration with Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers and educators. The site also states that it covers more than 500 years in a 90-minute experiential workshop that aims to foster understanding about shared histories as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, and it has been updated with new information like the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation final report.

Swan noted the way she is a generational survivor of residential schools, and her mother was in one for 11 years. She added she learned through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission meetings, but she knew little about residential schools from her mother, who did not like talking about her time there.

"We all need to work together to move forward," she said. "We can't do it alone as Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people. It's everybody's responsibility to move forward together. But you can't move forward unless you understand what's happened in the past. Without that understanding, you can't have any empathy."

Swan pointed out there were two residential schools in Wabasca, one in Lac La Biche and one in St. Albert.

She also noted the lack of recognition for local contributions of Métis people in Athabasca. She noted  Captain Shott, a river guide who helped freight move north, and Billy Loutit, the mailrunner who ran from Athabasca to Edmonton in 1904 to find help after a flood and did not get recognition for it.

"There are lots of people that continue to say, 'Well, they should just get over it,'" she said. "Once they've gone through the blanket exercise, then they say, 'Now I get it. You can't just get over it.'"

Swan added the blanket exercise tends to impact people in different ways, depending on where they are at with their family or life.

"That's what it's about — it's about loss of family, loss of culture, loss of connections, loss of land," she said. "So many different feelings and emotions across the spectrum ... Everybody has a different journey."

Swan is facilitating the exercise along with Bruce Jackson. To reserve a spot, people may email [email protected] or call the library at 780-675-2735.

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