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A teaching tool by KAIROS to raise awareness and understanding of the nation to nation relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.

TwO VeRSIOnS InCluded: GRAdeS 4-8 And GRAdeS 9-12/AdulT

The Blanket Exercise

2 Blanket Exercise | © KAIROS, 2012

Welcome to the Blanket ExerciseThe KAIROS Blanket exercise is an enormously popular and successful teaching tool that uses participatory popular education methodology to raise awareness of the nation-to-nation relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, and to teach a history of Canada that most people do not learn.

Since its creation in 1997, it has been done hundreds of times with thousands of people of all ages and from all backgrounds, by a wide variety of groups, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, as a way to open, or continue, the conversation about decolonization.

Designed to deepen understanding of the denial of Indigenous peoples’ nationhood, the Blanket Exercise explores the major themes and recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), examines how federal policies and programs impact the lives of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and identifies what Indigenous peoples and their allies are doing to bring about positive change.

As the name suggests, the Blanket Exercise begins with blankets arranged on the floor to represent Canada before the arrival of Europeans. The participants, who represent Indigenous peoples, begin by moving around on the blankets. While a narrator reads from a script, other participants – representing the Europeans or newcomers - join and begin to interact with those on the blankets. As the script traces the history of the relationship between Europeans and Indigenous nations in Canada, the participants respond to various cues and interact by reading prepared scrolls. At the end of the exercise only a few people remain on blankets which have been folded into small bundles and cover only a fraction of their original area.

In this booklet you will find two different versions of the script: one for grades 4-8 and one for grades 9-12/adults. Hopefully doing the Blanket Exercise will inspire participants to take action on the injustices facing Indigenous peoples. At the end of the booklet you will find a list of suggested follow-up activities.

You are invited to explore and use this exercise in your community, school, group, or place of worship. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions on any stage of the process, or with advice on how we can make the Blanket Exercise even better!

ABOuT KAIROS: KAIROS unites eleven national Canadian churches and religious organizations in faithful work for human rights and ecological justice through research, education, partnership, and advocacy. In 1996, RCAP concluded that public education is key to realizing a renewed relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples - one based on sharing, respect and the mutual recognition of rights and responsibilities. Through creative and innovative public education initiatives and campaigns such as the Blanket Exercise, KAIROS works towards a just, peaceful and respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples that recognizes Indigenous peoples’ rights, including the right to self-determination.

Blanket Exercise | © KAIROS, 2012 3

GOAl: To engage participants in the historic relationship between Europeans and the Indigenous nations, and in the colonization of the land we now call Canada.

whAT yOu need:• 10(ormore)blankets

• Scrolls - At the end of each of the two versions of the script you will find the corresponding “scrolls”. Print these pages, roll them as scrolls, and indicate on the outside their type and number. If possible, use coloured paper to distinguish the scrolls from each other to make them easier to identify during the exercise. Note that the scrolls with letters are used by the European character(s), while ones with numbers are used by Participants.

• Index cards: white, yellow and blue (if you don’t have coloured cards you can always write the colour on the cards, or on pieces of paper). You will need enough white and yellow cards for just over half of the participants, and two blue cards. Mark one of the yellow cards with an “X”.

• Anarrator and at least one person to act as the european. Both should be comfortable reading aloud.

• 3 maps from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which you will find in the centre of the booklet – “Turtle Island”, “Treaties” and “Aboriginal Lands Today”. (You may consider scanning these and presenting them on a projector).

TIme RequIRed:Doing the Blanket Exercise takes one hour; it’s always better not to rush it. Reflecting together afterwards is important, so take as much time as possible. The larger the group, the more time you will need.

PRePARATIOn:Depending on the age of the participants, choose the appropriate version of the Blanket Exercise script and read over it carefully. Ideally, speak to one or two people ahead

of time, give them a copy of the script, and ask if they would agree to play the role of the European(s) (or choose a confident member of your group on the spot). Copy and roll the scrolls, identifying them on the outside by number or letter and type. For the grades 4-8 script, the scrolls for photocopying are found on page 15 and for the Grades 9-12/adult script, the scrolls are on page 43. Also, gather the necessary number of coloured cards.

The ideal number of participants for this exercise is about 25, but it can be easily and successfully adapted for smaller groups by having participants read more than one scroll. The key is to ensure that there are some participants left on the blankets at the end of the exercise. Groups larger than 25 can also be easily accommodated by using the “fish-bowl” approach, which means having have some participants play active roles on the blankets while others observe in a circle around the group and help to read the scrolls.

As the facilitator, please keep in mind that some groups find the exercise emotional and will react in different ways. Some may laugh inappropriately or get angry. It is important to remember this during the debrief session. You may want to consider asking the group why certain reactions happened at certain points. This type of discussion can help sensitize the participants and may avoid lingering questions about what kind of behaviour or reaction is appropriate.

SOme COnCePTS And TeRmInOlOGy TO ReVIew BefORe GeTTInG STARTed:What is a treaty? Treaties are internationally binding agreements between sovereign nations. Hundreds of treaties of peace and friendship were concluded between the European settlers and First Nations during the period prior to confederation. These treaties promoted peaceful coexistence and the sharing of resources. After Confederation, the European settlers pursued treaty making as a tool to acquire vast tracts of land, and the numbered treaties 1 through 11 were concluded between First Nations and the Crown.


For Indigenous peoples, treaties outline the rights and responsibilities of all parties to the agreement. In the traditions of Indigenous treaty making, these are oral agreements. In addition, they are “vital, living instruments of relationship” (RCAP) that involve all Canadians.

“To us the answer is not about incremental change, it is not about just concrete action, it is also repairing the relationship. And the way to repair the relationship between us and Canada is to have this country acknowledge that its richness and its wealth come from their one‐sided interpretation of the treaties. There has to be henceforth a double understanding of what those treaties represent.” (Ovide Mecredi, Crown-First Nations Gathering 2012)

What does it mean to be a sovereign nation?A sovereign nation enjoys the right to self-determination and has a governance structure and territory that is recognized by other nations. While European nations focus on the protection of individual rights, Indigenous nations centre on collective rights such as land, language, spiritual traditions, and self-governance, to name a few. Indigenous individuals rely on strong nations for their well-being because they protect and nurture the collective rights through which an individual finds cultural meaning and identity. The Indigenous struggle for sovereignty is a struggle for nationhood and many believe that the recognition of Indigenous nationhood will enhance, not diminish, Canadian sovereignty. The treaties are central to sovereignty and nationhood as they address how to coexist as distinct peoples.

What is the difference between equity and equality? Equality means each person gets the same treatment or the same amount of something. It involves systematically dividing something into equal parts. Equity, on the other hand, recognizes that not everyone has the same needs. It is about justice and a fair process that leads to an equal outcome. Equity takes into account the injustices of the past and how they have placed some in positions of privilege while others face significant barriers to achieving well-being.

TeRmInOlOGyIndigenous peoples is a term for which there is no one definition because it is up to each Indigenous person to define themselves, something that for far too long has been done by others. Cree lawyer Sharon Venne suggests that being Indigenous means being “descendants of the people occupying a territory when the colonizers arrived.”

Indigenous is a word that has come into widespread use through the recognition that those people who are the original inhabitants of a place, and who have been marginalized by ethnic groups who arrived later, have much in common with other peoples worldwide with the same experience.

Not only does the word speak to global solidarity amongst these peoples, but it has important legal significance as well. Indigenous peoples’ rights have been recognized at the international level in various ways but most importantly in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007 and endorsed by Canada in November 2010.

When we speak of peoples, as opposed to people, it is a recognition of collective rights: that each Indigenous people is a distinct entity with its own cultural and political rights.

Aboriginal peoples refers to the original peoples of North America who belong to historic, cultural and political entities. Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes three groups of Aboriginal peoples: First Nations, Inuit and Métis. There are a number of synonyms for Aboriginal peoples, including Indigenous peoples, First Peoples, and original peoples. None of these terms should be used to describe only one or two of the groups.

Because Aboriginal peoples is the term used in Canada’s constitution, it has specific importance within a Canadian legal context.

First Nations is not a legal term but replaces “Indian” in common usage. There are many First Nations in Canada:


Innu, Cree, Salteaux, Ojibwe, Haida, Dene, Mohawk, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Blood, Shuswap, etc., each with its own history, culture, and traditions.

Inuit are the Indigenous Circumpolar people of Canada and other northern countries. They were formerly called Eskimo, which the Inuit consider an insult. In Canada, the Inuit live in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, northern Quebec, Labrador and, in recent years, southern Canadian cities as well.

Métis are the mixed-blood descendants of French and Scottish fur traders and other early settlers, and Cree, Ojibwe, Saulteaux and Assiniboine women. They have their own culture and history. As is the case with many Aboriginal languages, the Métis language, Michif, is endangered. Métis society and culture were established before European settlement was entrenched.

Assimilation is the process of absorbing one cultural group into another. This can be pursued through harsh and extreme state policies such as removing children from their families and placing them in the homes or institutions of another culture. Forcing a people to assimilate through legislation is cultural genocide—the intent is to eradicate a culture.


The Blanket Exercise for Grades 4-8

BeGInnInG…If this is your first session together as a group, ensure you spend some time getting to know one another. Set some group norms that will guide how you act towards one another.

Consider showing the Public Service Alliance of Canada video “Justice for Aboriginal Peoples - It’s time” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DrXZUIinU. Let the group know that the Blanket Exercise explores the issues raised in the video.

heARInG IndIGenOuS VOICeSInvite someone in the group to read aloud each of the following three quotations from young Indigenous people. You will find the scrolls formatted for photocopying starting on page 15.

Participant: Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 1- “I know what the government did in the past; they said where we had to live. I know that we’re not treated equally now, because I can feel it. We’re all Canadians and we should all be treated equally.”—Cassie, from a Mi’kmaq community in Nova Scotia

Participant: Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 2- “You have to remember that the Canadian government has done a lot to Aboriginal people that was meant to make us become like Europeans. For example, in residential schools, my grandmother told me you couldn’t speak our language or you’d get beaten; you couldn’t see your parents – things like that. We didn’t have voting rights for a long time. We also lost a lot of our culture.”—Heather, from a Cree community in Saskatchewan

Participant: Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 3- “One of my favourite things about my culture is how we’re taught that everything on the Earth is to be respected. It’s an important part of the culture and covers everything. That includes respecting yourself. Respecting yourself is one of the most important things my culture has taught me. Also, the land, water, plants, air and animals are all very important to our culture and need to be respected. Without any of it, what would we be?”—Kateri, from a Mohawk community in Quebec

OPenInG dISCuSSIOn queSTIOnS (OPTIOnAl):• WhatdoesthetermIndigenousmean?Aboriginal? FirstNation?Inuit?Métis?

• Hasanyoneheardthewordassimilationbefore? Assimilation means being made to be like everyone else. Isitagoodorbadthing?Whatifyouwereforcedto“belike everyoneelse”?

• Whatisatreaty?

• DoyouthinkCanadadoesagoodjobrespectingother peoples’cultures?Whyorwhynot?

• Whatdoesitmeantobeanation?

N.B. These terms and concepts are explained for facilitators on pages 3-4.

Sum uP The COnVeRSATIOn By SAyInG SOmeThInG SuCh AS: Sometimes we hear about European explorers “discovering” what we now call North America. But it was really more like this: Europeans arrived and found many nations living here—different nations, each with its own language, culture and form of government. In some cases women were the ones who held the most powerful roles in the communities. We call these Indigenous nations because they were the original people living on this land. Europeans realized that


if they wanted to live on this land they needed to make agreements with these nations, agreements or “treaties”. We are going to learn about how those first agreements between nations, agreements of peace and friendship, did not last. Or maybe it is clearer to say that Europeans did not keep up their side of the agreements. We want to have a good relationship in Canada between the descendents of the original people (the great, great, great... grandchildren of those who first lived here) and the people who have come as newcomers, whether that was a long time ago or recently. To do that we need to remember that the Indigenous peoples who lived here first were nations. We need to share and respect each other and remember that each of us has a role to play in Canada. This is not always easy to do, especially when there have been so many problems with the relationship along the way.

leARnInG ThROuGh exPeRIenCInG: The BlAnKeT exeRCISeTell participants they are about to participate in an interactive exercise designed to deepen their understanding of what happened when Europeans first came to Canada. Ask participants to notice how First Nations, Inuit and later Métis peoples lost their land. Invite participants to try and imagine what that feels like, and what it means in all parts of their life. Ask participants to note what Indigenous peoples did to preserve their languages and their cultures and to prevent being forced to be like everyone else.

Use the three maps from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that are included in this booklet – “Turtle Island”, “Treaties” and “Aboriginal Lands Today” – to explain that we will learn how we went from a time when Indigenous peoples used all the land we call Canada (what some Indigenous peoples refer to as “Turtle Island”) to a time when land reserved for Indigenous peoples is only a very tiny part of the land of Canada. Note: reserves below the 60th parallel are only 1/10 of 1% of Canada’s land mass.

Share that for some this exercise may bring up difficult feelings. Assure participants that the last step will be an opportunity for people to share their feelings in a respectful way.

Lay the blankets on the floor up against each other so as to create a blanketed area large enough to accommodate all the participants. Fold one blanket and set it aside. Invite everyone to remove their shoes and to stand on the blankets. Ask them to move around on the blankets – to use and occupy the land - as if they were living on it. Ask your volunteer(s) / European(s) to stand with you.


ScriptNarrator: These blankets represent the northern part of Turtle Island, or what we now know as North America, before the arrival of Europeans. You represent the Indigenous peoples, the original peoples.

Long before the arrival of Europeans, Turtle Island was your home, and home to millions of people like you living in hundreds of nations. You fished and hunted and farmed. Each community had its own language, culture, traditions, laws and governments. These communities worked together and cooperated with one another. Before the newcomers arrived, you, the original peoples, ended fights by making treaties.

Optional: Consider having students form different groups and act out the tasks they would be performing on a daily basis.

Narrator: The land is very important to you. All of your needs – food, clothing, shelter, culture, your spirituality – are taken care of by the land - by the blankets. In return, you take very seriously your responsibility to take care of the land.

Optional question: In what ways do you think that Indigenouspeoples’needsweremetbytheland?

Introduce the volunteer(s) representing the European settlers.

narrator: Things were happening in Europe at the end of the 15th century that would mean a huge change for you.

In 1493, the King and Queen of Spain asked Pope Alexander to make a statement that would help Spain’s explorers when they arrived in new lands. The statement was called the “Doctrine of Discovery” and this is what it said:

European - Scroll A (unrolls and reads in a loud voice): According to the Doctrine of Discovery nations that are not Christian cannot own land. The Indigenous peoples living on this land will be put under the protection and supervision of the Christian nations that “discover” their lands.

Narrator: And so began the process of the European “discovery” of Turtle Island that started in the east and moved across the continent.

The European(s) step(s) on the blankets and begins shaking handsandmillingaround.Whileshakinghands,he/she/theygive(s) out white index cards to about half the participants, and yellow cards to about one-third of the remaining participants. One of the yellow cards should have an “X” on it. Give blue cards to two participants. (Note: If the group is large enough, ensure that at least 10 participants do not receive cards.)

Narrator: When the Europeans first arrived on Turtle Island there were many more Indigenous people than Europeans.

The newcomers depended on you for their survival, and you helped them to understand how you did things - how you taught your children, how you took care of people who were sick, how you lived off the land, and how your governments worked.

In the beginning there was lots of cooperation and support between you and the settlers. The settlers and their leaders recognized you, the First Peoples, as having your own governments, laws and territories. They recognized you as independent nations.

They made agreements or treaties with you. These treaties explained how you were going to share the land and the water, the animals, and the plants. Two of the oldest agreements – the Covenant Chain and the Two Row Wampum – were between the Europeans and the Haudenosaunee, who live in the east in what we now call Quebec, Ontario and the state of New York.

These treaties were very important because they were agreements between you and the kings and queens of countries in Europe. They made these agreements with you because you were here first, the land belonged to you, and you had your own governments. The treaties formally recognized your power and independence as nations.


The Europeans understood they could not force their laws or way of life, the Indigenous peoples. They understood that you had rights.

European - Scroll B (unrolls and reads in a loud voice): In the Royal Proclamation of 1763, King George said the Indigenous nations own their lands, and that the only legal way newcomers could gain control of those lands was by making treaties between the two nations. The year 2013 marks the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation.

Narrator: Later on, the Government of Canada was formed, and the Royal Proclamation became part of Canadian law.

For you, the Indigenous peoples, the treaties were very special and sacred agreements. They were statements of peace, friendship, and sharing, and they were based on respect and honesty.

Treaties explained how the land and waters would be shared, and tried to make sure there would be peace between you, the original peoples, and the newcomers.

Sharing was very important to you. The hunters shared their food with everyone. And the families helped one another raise the children.

In the treaties, you tried to help the Europeans understand what you meant by sharing.

At this point, the European(s) begin(s) to slowly fold the blankets, making the blanket space smaller and smaller.

The participants are reminded they must NOT step off the blankets. The objective is to stay on the blankets, even as they get smaller.

Narrator: But the Europeans didn’t see it that way. They had a different view of the treaties. For them, land was something that could be bought and sold, and treaties were a way of getting you, the Indigenous peoples to give up your land.

After a while, you didn’t get along very well with the Europeans. When the War of 1812 ended, the Europeans no longer needed you to help them with the fighting.

As the fur trade dried up, the European newcomers turned more and more to farming and started looking for more land.

Before too long, there were more Europeans than Indigenous peoples. One reason was the diseases the Europeans brought with them, diseases such as small pox, measles and TB. You, the Indigenous peoples, suffered badly from these diseases because you had never had them in your communities before. Millions of you died. In fact, there are some people who believe that fully half the Indigenous people alive at the time died from these diseases. In some communities, nine out of ten people died.

The Narrator asks those participants with white index cards to step off the blanket as they represent those who died of the various diseases.

Please be silent for a moment to remember those who died from the diseases.

One European walks to a person, hands them the folded blanket and reads:

European - Scroll C: Blankets infected with the deadly small pox virus were given or traded to the Indigenous people by military leaders such as Lord Jeffrey Amherst. You represent the many Indigenous people who died from small pox after having come into contact with such blankets. Please step off the blanket.

The European then walks to one person in the “east” and reads:

European - Scroll D: You represent the Beothuk, the original people of what is now called Newfoundland. Your people are now extinct. When the Europeans arrived you lost important food sources. Your people died from diseases you had never seen before. Many of your people died in violent fights with trappers and settlers. Some of your people were hunted down and killed. Please step off the blankets.


The European(s) and the Narrator walk to the “south” and choose two people who are standing close together.

Narrator: You represent the First Nations that were divided when the border between the United States and British Canada was created. This border divides communities and cuts you off from each other. Please move to separate blankets.

The European(s) guide(s) each person to a separate blanket, and then walk(s) with the Narrator to the “west” where they choose one person.

Narrator: Construction of the railway opened up the prairies to settlers. Land was needed for farming and the Government of Canada bought a huge piece of land from the Hudson’s Bay Company. This was very hard for some of you who were already living there such as the Métis and the Cree. You, the Métis, fought for your land and were sometimes joined by the Cree. You won some of these battles, but in the end you were defeated by the government’s soldiers. Please step off the blanket as you represent those Métis or Cree leaders who died in battle, were put in jail, or were executed.

The European(s) and the Narrator walk to the “north”.

Narrator: In the High Arctic, Inuit communities were moved to isolated, unfamiliar, and barren lands, often with very bad results.

European - Scroll E: You represent those First Peoples – the Inuit, and the Innu at Davis Inlet, and many other Indigenous communities – who suffered and sometimes died because you were forced to move to an unfamiliar place. Please move one of the blankets away from the others, fold it small and sit down on it.

The European(s) take(s) a blanket, folds it small and directs the group to this blanket.

Narrator: Those with blue cards, step off the blankets. You represent those who died of hunger after being forced off your original land and away from your hunting grounds.

Optional question: Whywouldmovingtoadifferentplacebesodifficultforpeoplewholiveofftheland?

Narrator: As more Europeans arrived, they needed more land. Many of the Europeans thought they were better than other people, including you. Soon, they didn’t think of you as friends and partners, but as a “problem” to be solved.

The Europeans started ignoring or changing their laws to make it easier for them to take your land. Some land was taken in war. Some land was taken after you died.

As Indigenous peoples, you lost more than just your land. Because the land is so important to you, when it was taken away some of you also lost your way of living, your culture and, in some cases, your reason to live.

The European(s) and the Narrator present nine participants – either on or off the blankets - with numbered scrolls. The Narrator asks each participant to unroll the scroll and read italoud.Withsmallergroups,eachparticipantcanread more than one scroll.

Participant - Scroll 1: Terra Nullius (TER-ah Noo-lee-us)– The idea of Terra Nullius, which in Latin means “empty land” – gave the newcomers the right to take over any “empty” land found by explorers.

Narrator: These were usually the lands used by Indigenous peoples for hunting and trapping. In other words, if the newcomers thought the land was “empty” they would take it. But, because the land wasn’t “empty” they changed the idea to include lands not being used by “civilized” peoples, or lands not being put to “civilized” use.

It was the Europeans who decided what it meant to be “civilized”, and they decided that because you and your people were not using the land in a “civilized way”, they could take it and there was nothing you could do to stop them.

Participant - Scroll 2: The BNA (British North America) Act – The BNA Act, also known as the Constitution Act, 1867, put “Indians and Lands reserved for Indians” under the control of the federal government.


Narrator: When this happened, it meant you lost your rights, and control over your lands. In other words, the law gave control of your lands to the Government of Canada, which was made up of people from Europe. You, the Indigenous people, were not involved in the creation of this law that would have such a big impact on your lives.

More and more the plan was to try and make you like the Europeans.

Participant - Scroll 3: Indian Act – In 1876 all the laws dealing with Indigenous peoples were gathered together and put into the Indian Act.

European - Scroll F, Part I (in a loud voice): Now hear this! According to the Indian Act of 1876 and the British North America Act of 1867, you and all of your territories are now under the direct control of the Canadian federal government. You will now be placed on reserves. Please fold your blankets until they are just large enough to stand on.

Narrator: The Indian Act completely changed your lives as Indigenous peoples. As long as your cultures were strong, it was difficult for the government to take your land and so the government used the Indian Act to attack who you were as peoples. Hunting and fishing was restricted. Your spiritual ceremonies - including the potlatch, pow-wow and sundance - were outlawed. You went from being strong, independent First Nations, with your own governments, to isolated and poor ‘bands’ that depended on the government for almost everything. You were treated like children and became the responsibility of the federal government. Through the Indian Act, the federal government has denied you your basic rights, things that most Canadians take for granted, such as healthy schools, proper housing and clean running water.

European - Scroll F, Part II: You may not leave your reserve without a permit. You may not vote. You may not get together to talk about your rights. You may not practice your spirituality or your traditional forms of government. If you do any of these things, you may be put in jail.

Narrator: The Indian Act also tried to stop Indigenous peoples from fighting to keep their land. For example, under the Indian Act, it was against the law to raise money to fight for land rights in the courts until the 1950s.

The Inuit were included under the Indian Act in 1939, but the Métis never were.

Participant - Scroll 4: Enfranchisement (en-fran-CHISE-ment) – Under this federal government policy, all First Nations people who became doctors, teachers, or who joined other professions, would lose their legal Indian status. This was called being granted “enfranchisement”.

Narrator: In other words, the government would treat Indigenous people entering professions as Canadians. This means the government no longer legally recognized you as Indigenous people.

Since this included lawyers, it prevented you from using the courts to protect your land rights during the first half of the 1900s.

Participant - Scroll 5: Assimilation (ah-sim-ill-EH-shun)– The government thought the “Indian problem” would solve itself as more and more Indigenous people died from diseases and others became part of the larger Canadian society. As one government employee said, the government’s goal was “to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and that there is no Indian problem and no Indian Department.” [Indian Affairs deputy superintendent Duncan Campbell Scott]

Narrator: The idea was that Indigenous people had to become more like the Europeans. You had to give up your rights and become like other Canadians. You had to farm like them, go to the same schools, and pray in the same churches.

Participant - Scroll 6: Residential Schools – From 1820 until the 1970s, the federal government took First Nations, Inuit and Métis children from their homes and communities and put them in boarding schools that were run by churches. These schools were often very far from your homes. In most cases you


were not allowed to speak your own language. Most of you stayed at the school for 8-10 months, while others stayed all year. The last Indian residential school closed in 1996.

All people with yellow cards must now move to a separate, empty blanket. You represent those who were taken out of your communities and placed in residential schools far from your homes.

Narrator: While some students say they had positive experiences at the schools, many of you say that you suffered from very bad conditions and from different kinds of abuse. Many of you lost family connections and didn’t learn your language, culture and traditions. Because you grew up in the schools and rarely went home, many of you never learned how to be good parents. Some students died at the schools. Many of you never returned home, or were treated badly if you did.

The Narrator asks the person with the yellow index card marked with an “X” to please step off the blanket. That person represents those students who died as a result of their experience at residential schools. The narrator asks another person with a yellow index card to return to their home community. The community members should all turn their backs on the returning person to represent the isolation people often faced when returning to a community they had been taken from.

Narrator: And this is not a story from the past. You are still treated differently. Your schools don’t get as much money. Indigenous children are still much more likely to be taken from their homes and placed in foster care.

Please be silent for another moment to honour those who died or were shunned because of residential schools.

Participant - Scroll 7: The 1969 White Paper – This proposed federal law again tried to solve the “Indian problem” by getting you, the Indigenous peoples, to give up your rights and become like other Canadians.

Narrator: You were outraged by this attempt to take away even more of your rights and organized to defeat it. Please unfold one corner of your blankets to represent this strong act of resistance against losing your rights, and give yourselves a round of applause.

The European(s) can step in and stop the participants from unfolding more than a small corner of their blankets.

Participant - Scroll 8: Broken promises – Over the years, more than 70 per cent of the land set aside for you in the treaties has been lost or stolen by the government. Rarely has the government tried to replace this land, or tried to give you something in return for its use.

European - Scroll G: Meanwhile, the treaties are ignored by non-Indigenous people and big companies are allowed to make lots and lots of money from Indigenous lands and natural resources, but you the Indigenous peoples get little but the pollution, and future generations are left to clean up the mess.

Narrator: Although you are living on very rich land, you continue to live in poverty. As Douglas, a Lubicon Cree student said, “there is a light on the side of the pump house that goes red. That tells us that there’s no water and that’s when we can’t go to school on some days.” In fact, First Nations schools receive $2000-$3000 less per student than provincially run schools.

And yet, for you the Indigenous peoples, treaties continue to be important, special agreements that explain how the land can be shared equally and peacefully. Unfortunately, this view of treaties is not shared by the government and many non-Indigenous people, who see treaties as documents that give indigenous peoples control of the land.

Participant - Scroll 9: U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - The Declaration is a set of international standards on the rights of Indigenous peoples. It took over 20 years to write and is one of the most debated and thought-out human rights documents in U.N. history. It is


unique because for the first time in U.N. history, those who are affected by the Declaration, you the Indigenous peoples, were an important part of its development.

The Narrator asks all the remaining participants to unfold one small part of their blankets. Again, if too much is being unfolded the European(s) can intervene.

Narrator: Please give yourselves a round of applause.

The Narrator asks one person to read the following quote:

Participant – Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 4: “It is about our relationships with each other, our lands, natural resources, our laws, our rights, our languages, our spirituality, our ways of life.” —Phil Fontaine, Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Narrator: In 2007 the majority of countries in the United Nations voted to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Government of Canada voted against the Declaration, along with the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The Government of Canada said that as an international human rights instrument for Indigenous peoples, the Declaration could threaten the rights of non-Indigenous peoples.

Optional: Explain how this is the same as saying that other international human rights instruments, such as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, threaten the rights of adults. Explain that this is not true, and that specific groups in society that are sometimes persecuted or vulnerable, need special attention to make sure their rights are not violated.

Narrator: In 2008, over 100 experts said Canada’s reasons for opposing the Declaration don’t make sense. The Government of Canada finally endorsed the Declaration on November 12, 2010, but with qualifications. The Government said it would support the Declaration as long as it is consistent with Canada’s laws and policies, including the Indian Act.

Most Indigenous groups and their allies see Canada’s endorsement of the Declaration as an important first step towards a new relationship that protects their rights.

The Government of Canada and the United Nations have said again and again that your situation - the situation facing First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada - is Canada’s most important human rights issue. According to the U.N., Canada is often ranked one of the ten best places in the world to live. However, using the same measuring stick, your living conditions as Indigenous peoples in Canada are more like those of much poorer countries.

The Narrator asks one person to read the following quote:

Participant – Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 5: “As an individual I am scared for my own education and how my life that’s ahead of me is going to be like, if I don’t qualify to get into college. Life for us will gradually get worse, as yours gets easier, that’s not fair for us. We deserve better, much, much better.”—Vicky, First Nations student

Ask people to look around. At this point, there should be a few people standing on very small areas of blankets. Ask them to remember what it looked like when they started the exercise and what it looks like now.


deBRIef And fOllOw-uPAsk participants to sit in a circle to talk about their experiences. Having the speaker hold a feather, stone or another object may help to ensure that only one person is speaking at a time. You may wish to allow this to happen organically and not structure it too much. However, you may prefer to use the following questions to get the conversation started.

• Whathaveyoulearnedtoday?

• Whatwasthemostemotionalmomentforyou?

• Wastheresomethingyoudidn’tunderstand?

• Considerhavingstudentsexploresomeofthecurrent inequities that are a reality for young Indigenous people today. See case studies on page 54.

The Blanket Exercise is designed to inspire action. For some ideas, please refer to the selection of suggested resources on page 55.

AddITIOnAl ACTIVITIeSA. Have participants make a collage or picture that describes how they felt about the Blanket Exercise. Give them the opportunity to share it with others.

B. equity exercise: (20 minutes) Weoftenlookfor“fairness”or“equality”whenwespeak out on issues of human rights and ecological justice. This can be particularly true when referring toresources.Sowhatreallyisequity?Whyequityand not equality, particularly when speaking about Indigenousrights?

Have participants sit in a circle. Each participant is asked to remove their right shoe and hand it to the person on their right. Then ask each participant to put on the shoe they were given. As they are trying to make it “fit” ask participants: “what’s the problem?” Weren’t they all given a shoe to replace the one they gave away? Wasn’t each person given the same item, a shoe? Explain how equity, or filling ones needs, is not necessarily about giving each person the exact same thing. Equity is about people getting the “shoe that fits”. Otherwise, the shoe is of little or no use.

As a group, discuss the following question: Why is it important to understand equity when working towards reconciliation and right relations with Indigenous peoples?

This exercise was adapted from: http://laradavid.blogspot.com/2008/07/difference-between-equityand-equality.html


Participant: Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 1

“I know what the government did in the past; they said where we had to live. I know that we’re not treated equally now, because I can feel it. We’re all Canadians and we should all be treated equally.”—Cassie, from a Mi’kmaq community in Nova Scotia

Scrolls for Photocopying: Grades 4-8 Script


“You have to remember that the Canadian government has done a lot to Aboriginal people that was meant to make us become like Europeans. For example, in residential schools, my grandmother told me you couldn’t speak our language or you’d get beaten; you couldn’t see your parents – things like that. We didn’t have voting rights for a long time. We also lost a lot of our culture.”—Heather, from a Cree community in Saskatchewan


“One of my favourite things about my culture is how we’re taught that everything on the Earth is to be respected. It’s an important part of the culture and covers everything. That includes respecting yourself. Respecting yourself is one of the most important things my culture has taught me. Also, the land, water, plants, air and animals are all very important to our culture and need to be respected. Without any of it, what would we be?”—Kateri, from a Mohawk community in Quebec


European - Scroll B (unrolls and reads in a loud voice):

In the Royal Proclamation of 1763, King George said the Indigenous nations own their lands, and that the only legal way newcomers could gain control of those lands was by making treaties between the two nations. The year 2013 marks the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation.

European - Scroll C:

Blankets infested with the small pox virus were given or traded to the Indigenous people by military leaders such as Lord Jeffrey Amherst. You represent the many Indigenous people who died from small pox after having come into contact with such blankets. Please step off the blanket.

European - Scroll A (unrolls and reads in a loud voice):

According to the Doctrine of Discovery nations that are not Christian cannot own land. The Indigenous peoples living on this land will be put under the protection and supervision of the Christian nations that “discover” their lands.


European - Scroll D:

You represent the Beothuk, the original people of what is now called Newfoundland. Your people are now extinct. When the Europeans arrived you lost important food sources. Your people died from diseases you had never seen before. Many of your people died in violent fights with trappers and settlers. Some of your people were hunted down and killed. Please step off the blankets.

European - Scroll E:

You represent those First Peoples – the Inuit, and the Innu at Davis Inlet, and many other Indigenous communities – who suffered and sometimes died because you were forced to move to an unfamiliar place. Please move one of the blankets away from the others, fold it small and sit down on it.

Participant - Scroll 1: Terra nullius (TeR-ah noo-lee-us)

The idea of Terra Nullius, which in Latin means “empty land” – gave the newcomers the right to take over any “empty” land found by explorers.

Participant - Scroll 2: The BnA (British north America) Act

The BNA Act, also known as the Constitution Act, 1867, put “Indians and Lands reserved for Indians” under the control of the federal government.


European - Scroll F, Part II:

You may not leave your reserve without a permit. You may not vote. You may not get together to talk about your rights. You may not practice your spirituality or your traditional forms of government. If you do any of these things, you may be put in jail.

Participant - Scroll 3: Indian Act

In 1876 all the laws dealing with Indigenous peoples were gathered together and put into the Indian Act.

European - Scroll F, Part I (in a loud voice):

Now hear this! According to the Indian Act of 1876 and the British North America Act of 1867, you and all of your territories are now under the direct control of the Canadian federal government. You will now be placed on reserves. Please fold your blankets until they are just large enough to stand on.


Participant - Scroll 4: enfranchisement (en-fran-ChISe-ment)

Under this federal government policy, all First Nations people who became doctors, teachers, or who joined other professions, would lose their legal Indian status. This was called being granted “enfranchisement”.

Participant - Scroll 5: Assimilation (ah-sim-ill-eh-shun)

The government thought the “Indian problem” would solve itself as more and more Indigenous people died from diseases and others became part of the larger Canadian society. As one government employee said, the government’s goal was “to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and that there is no Indian problem and no Indian Department.” [Indian Affairs deputy superintendent Duncan Campbell Scott]

Participant - Scroll 6: Residential Schools

From 1820 until the 1970s, the federal government took First Nations, Inuit and Métis children from their homes and communities and put them in boarding schools that were run by churches. These schools were often very far from your homes. In most cases you were not allowed to speak your own language. Most of you stayed at the school for 8-10 months, while others stayed all year. The last Indian residential school closed in 1996.


Participant - Scroll 8: Broken promises

Over the years, more than 70 per cent of the land set aside for you in the treaties has been lost or stolen by the government. Rarely has the government tried to replace this land, or tried to give you something in return for its use.

European - Scroll G:

Meanwhile, the treaties are ignored by non-Indigenous people and big companies are allowed to make lots and lots of money from Indigenous lands and natural resources, while you the Indigenous peoples get little but the pollution, and future generations are left to clean up the mess.

Participant - Scroll 7: The 1969 white Paper

This proposed federal law again tried to solve the “Indian problem” by getting you, the Indigenous peoples, to give up your rights and become like other Canadians.


Participant - Scroll 9: u.n. declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The Declaration is a set of international standards on the rights of Indigenous peoples. It took over 20 years to write and is one of the most debated and thought-out human rights document in U.N. history. It is unique because for the first time in U.N. history, those who are affected by the Declaration, you the Indigenous peoples, were an important part of its development.

Participant – Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 4:

“It is about our relationships with each other, our lands, natural resources, our laws, our rights, our languages, our spirituality, our ways of life.”—Phil Fontaine, Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Participant – Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 5:

“As an individual I am scared for my own education and what how my life that’s ahead of me is going to be like, if I don’t qualify to get into college. Life for us will gradually get worse, as yours gets easier, that’s not fair for us. We deserve better, much, much better.” —Vicky, First Nations student


The Blanket Exercise for Grades 9-12/ AdultsBeGInnInG…If this is your first session together as a group, ensure you spend some time getting to know one another. Set some group norms that will guide how you act towards one another. Consider showing the Public Service Alliance of Canada video “Justice for Aboriginal Peoples - It’s time” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DrXZUIinU. Let the group know that you will be exploring the issues raised in the video.

heARInG IndIGenOuS VOICeSThe Blanket Exercise is an opportunity to learn our shared history, and to form a common memory. Written following the release of the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in 1996, and with the participation of many Indigenous people, it is an opportunity to experience our shared history from a different, perhaps unfamiliar perspective.

Invite someone in the group to read aloud each of the following four quotations. You’ll find the scrolls formatted for photocopying starting on page 43.

Participant - Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 1: “Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.”—Georges Erasmus, Dene Nation, co-chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

Participant - Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 2: “At contact with Europeans, each of the hundreds of Indigenous

Peoples of Indigenous America possessed all the elements of nationhood that were well-established by European settlers: territory, governing structures, legal systems and a historical continuity with our territories. Nothing since the arrival of Columbus has occurred to merit any reduction in the international legal status of Indigenous Peoples. The recognition of Indigenous Nations and our rights possess no threat to non-Indigenous Peoples.”—Sharon Venne, Cree

Participant - Hearings Indigenous Voices Scroll 3: “First Nations are nations. First Nations (treaty people) signed over 300 treaties with the Europeans during the 1700s and 1800s. The treaties agreed to share the lands and resources with the immigrants. … Under existing legislation, treaty people are “sovereign” nations. … The Indians surrendered over 9.9 million square kilometres of their land to the immigrants. Today, the sons of the immigrants have the largest treaty rights in Canada. The Indians have become the poorest peoples in Canada.”—Chief Pascall Bighetty, Pukatawagan First Nation

Participant - Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 4: “Our cultures, our religions, our governments and our ways of life are all in danger. We are not simply individuals with individual’s rights; on the contrary, we exist as distinct peoples, distinct communities, real functioning nations. We hold our lands in common; we hold our cultures and religions as nations and as communities and groups.”—ChiefJakeSwamp,WolfClanoftheMohawkNation,Haudenosaunee.

Sum uP The COnVeRSATIOn By SAyInG SOmeThInG SuCh AS: The Europeans who “discovered” what we now know as North America encountered independent, distinct, self-governing and self-sufficient societies. These societies were nations; they had a wide variety of languages and cultures, social traditions, and complex systems of government. Some were matriarchal.

Continued on page 35

The very fact that treaties were concluded with these nations confirms they were sovereign peoples. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) said a new relationship with Indigenous peoples is desperately needed and should be based on the reality of Indigenous nationhood. This new relationship should also be based on respect, sharing and the mutual recognition of rights and responsibilities. But RCAP also said this new relationship would be difficult because, among other things, it would require “decolonizing the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in Canada, a road that the experience in other societies demonstrates is not an easy one to follow.”

leARnInG ThROuGh exPeRIenCInG: The BlAnKeT exeRCISe

Tell people they are about to participate in an interactive exercise designed to deepen their understanding of the denial of Indigenous peoples’ nationhood in Canada. The exercise should help us notice how First Nations, Inuit and later Métis peoples lost access to their land and what impact this loss had on their communities – both in the past and today. This exercise will also show us how Indigenous peoples have always resisted assimilation. Tell the group that for some people this exercise may generate difficult feelings. Assure participants that the last step includes a discussion so people can share their feelings in a respectful way.

Use the three maps from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that are included in this booklet – “Turtle Island”, “Treaties” and “Aboriginal Lands Today” – to explain that the exercise is designed to help people understand how Indigenous peoples went from using and occupying all of the land we now call Canada, and which some Indigenous people refer to as Turtle Island, to a situation where reserves, or “lands reserved for Indians”, amount to only 1/10 of 1% of Canada’s land mass (below the 60th parallel).

Lay the blankets on the floor up against each other so as to create a blanketed area large enough to accommodate

all the participants. Fold one blanket and set it aside. Invite everyone to remove their shoes and to stand on the blankets. Ask them to move around on the blankets. Ask your volunteer Europeans(s) to stand with you.

The nARRATOR nOw BeGInS ReAdInG The SCRIPT BelOw: Narrator: These blankets represent the northern part of Turtle Island, or North America, before the arrival of Europeans. You represent the Indigenous peoples, the original inhabitants.

Long before the arrival of Europeans, Turtle Island was home to millions of people living in thousands of distinct, self-governing societies that formed hundreds of nations.

These were fishing, hunting, and farming societies, with their own languages, cultures, and traditions. These nations had their own laws and ways of governing themselves.

As Nations, you worked with one another. You traded and shared gifts through networks of trails and water routes that covered thousands of kilometres. You learned to resolve clashes and disputes over lands and resources through treaty-making.

Diverse as you were, as Indigenous peoples you shared things in common. Your relationship to the land defined who you were as peoples. All of your needs – food, clothing, shelter, culture, spiritual fulfillment – were met by the land and waters, represented here by the blankets. In turn, you took very seriously your collective responsibility to serve and protect the land.

Introduce the volunteer (or volunteers) who represent(s) the European settlers.

Narrator: Then-- events occurred in Europe at the end of the 15th century that would deeply impact your societies. In 1493 the King and Queen of Spain asked Pope Alexander VI to issue the following papal bull or “solemn declaration” from the Vatican. Known as the Doctrine of Discovery, it established


Christian dominion and subjugation control over “pagan” non-Christians. It also granted Spain the right to conquer any lands its explorers discovered. Non-Christian nations could no longer own the lands, and the Indigenous people were to be placed under the guardianship of those Christian nations that “discovered” their lands. They were to be taught the right way to believe and live—by force if necessary.

European - Scroll A (in a loud, pompous voice): We … by the authority of Almighty God … give, grant, and assign to you and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile and Leon, forever, all islands and main lands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered towards the west and south, … from the Arctic pole … to the Antarctic pole … And we make, appoint, and depute you and your said heirs and successors lords of them with full and free power, authority, and jurisdiction of every kind.

Narrator: And so began the process of the European “discovery” and colonization of Turtle Island that started in the east and moved across the continent.

The European(s) step(s) on the blankets and begin(s) to mill around.

Narrator: When Europeans first arrived on Turtle Island they were greatly outnumbered by you, the Indigenous people, and they depended on you for their survival. They needed you to help them make sense of the complex political and social systems that already existed.

Your early relationships with the settlers were based on cooperation and interdependence. You married each other. The settlers and their governors recognized you as distinct peoples with self-governing societies. This led to nation-to-nation relationships which were formalized in treaties, including some trade arrangements and military alliances. Two of the oldest agreements – the Covenant Chain and the Two Row Wampum – were concluded between the Europeans and the Haudenosaunee, who live in the east in what we now call Quebec, Ontario and the state of New York.

The European(s) begins shaking hands while milling around. Whileshakinghands,he/she/theygive(s) out white index cards

to about half the participants, and yellow cards to about one- third of the remaining participants. One of the yellow cards should have an “X” on it. Give blue cards to two participants. (Note: If the group is large enough, ensure that at least 10 participants do not receive cards.)

Narrator: These treaties were international agreements between the European crowns and your nations. They formally recognized each nation’s sovereignty and independence. They affirmed that you - the Indigenous peoples - are the original inhabitants, that your territories belong to you, and that you are self-governing.

European - Scroll B (in a loud voice): The Royal Proclamation of 1763 hereby confirms that Indigenous nations have title to their lands, and that consensual treaty-making with the Crown is the only way that land can be ceded from Indigenous peoples. The year 2013 marks the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation.

Narrator: Later on, the Canadian federal government replaced the Crown as the treaty-making body, and the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was entrenched in Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982. To Indigenous peoples, treaties were sacred agreements that were marked with spiritual ceremonies. They were not statements of submission or surrender, or real estate deals. Instead, they were statements of peace, friendship, and alliance that were based on instructions of traditional Indigenous spirituality around sharing, respect and honesty. Treaties were a way of sharing land and resources, and of ensuring peaceful co-existence among diverse peoples.

Now the European(s) begin(s) to slowly fold the blankets over, making the blanket space smaller and smaller. The Narrator should remind the participants they must not step off the blankets. The objective is to stay on the blankets, even as they get smaller.

Narrator: But the Europeans had altogether different views of land, and of treaties. For them, land was a commodity that could be bought and sold and treaties were a means of getting you, the Indigenous peoples, to “surrender” or “extinguish” your title to the land.


Over time, your relationship with the settlers worsened. With the end of the War of 1812, the newcomers in the East no longer needed you as military allies. In the West, as the fur trade dried up and colonists turned more and more to agriculture, they no longer needed you as trading partners either.

Soon the Europeans began to outnumber you. One reason for this was diseases the Europeans brought with them: diseases such as small pox, measles and TB, for which you had no immunity. Some experts believe fully half the Indigenous people alive at the time died from these diseases. Many communities were decimated and lost up to 90 percent of their members.

Narrator: British military leaders Lord Jeffrey Amherst and William Trent have passages in their journals from the end of the 18th century that reveal a clear intent to spread small pox to Indigenous peoples through infected blankets.

One European walks to a person and gives them a folded blanket.

European - Scroll C: “Infect the Indians with sheets upon which smallpox patients have been lying, or by any other means which may exterminate this accursed race.” (Lord Jeffery Amherst)

Narrator: All people with white index cards - please step off the blanket. You represent the millions of Indigenous peoples who died of the various diseases to which you had no immunity. We will take a minute of silence to remember those who died.

(Continuing) More Europeans also meant an ever increasing demand for land for settlement. Fuelled by new ideas from Europe about the inferiority of non-white races and women, colonists began to view you as obstacles to expansion and settlement, and as a “problem” to be solved.

The colonial governments adopted policies and practices to take your land. Some was taken in war. A lot more, since it was taken without any right or justification, was stolen

by the government. Some was taken by force, which led to some of you being killed.

Without access to the land you could no longer practice your traditional lifestyles. Many of you lost your cultures and languages. Some of you lost all hope, and a reason to live.

The federal government also imposed the Indian Act system of government on your communities, ignoring your traditional governments and excluding women.

The Narrator walks to one person in the “east”.

Narrator: You represent the Beothuk, the original inhabitants of what is now Newfoundland. Your people – the ones who didn’t starve or die in violent encounters with settlers trying to take your lands - were hunted and killed, or taken captive for reward. Your people are now extinct. Please step off the blankets.

The Narrator walks to the “south” and chooses two people who are standing close together.

Narrator: You represent the First Nations that were divided when the border between the United States and British Canada was created. This border cut through communities, and cut you off from each other. Please move to separate blankets.

The European(s) guide(s) each person to a separate blanket, and then walk(s) with the Narrator to the “west” where they choose one person.

Narrator: In the prairies, an influx of settlers and the transfer of a large tract of land from the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Government of Canada met with significant resistance from you, the Métis. During some of the clashes that ensued you were joined by the Cree. In the end you were defeated by the government’s soldiers. You represent those leaders of the resistance who died in battle, were put in jail, or were executed. Please step off the blankets.

The European walks to the “north” and chooses one “island” of people.


Narrator: In the High Arctic, Inuit communities were removed from their traditional territories and relocated to isolated, barren lands with which they were unfamiliar, often with devastating results.

European - Scroll D: You represent those First Peoples – the Inuit, and the Innu at Davis Inlet, and countless other Indigenous communities – who suffered and sometimes died through forced relocation. Please move one of the blankets away from the others, fold it small and sit down on it.

The European(s) direct(s) the group to a smaller, folded blanket.

Narrator: Those with blue cards, please step off the blankets. You represent those who died of malnutrition after being forced off your traditional territories and away from your hunting grounds.

The European(s) and the Narrator present participants – either on or off the blankets – with the three types of numbered scrolls – Participant, Background and Context. Please note that in some cases there may not be a title and Background or Context scroll. As the Narrator calls out the numbers, each participant unrolls the scroll and reads it aloud.Withsmallergroups,eachparticipantcanreadmore than one scroll. Depending on the number of participants, the Narrator can read the background scrolls or ask other participants to read them.

Participant - Scroll 1: Terra Nullius - The notion of Terra Nullius, which in Latin means “empty land”, gave a colonial nation the right to absorb any territory encountered by explorers. These were the hunting and trapping lands of Indigenous peoples.

Participant or Narrator - Background Scroll 1: If the land was deemed “empty” by the settler government it was considered subject to the Doctrine of Discovery and could be claimed by the European explorers. Over time, this concept was conveniently expanded to include lands not occupied by “civilized” peoples, or lands not being put to “civilized” use.

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 1: The Doctrine of Discovery embodies a colonial mentality and is the legal

basis for Canada’s existence. In today’s context, it continues to oppress Indigenous peoples through laws that do not recognize our right to govern ourselves. This has a negative impact on our identities, languages and cultures. It also forces us - not the settlers- to prove title to the land.

Participant - Scroll 2: The British North America (BNA) Act - The BNA Act, also known as the Constitution Act of 1867, put “Indians and Lands reserved for Indians” under the control of the federal government.

Participant or Narrator - Background Scroll 2: The BNA Act was drafted in part to provide policy “teeth” for Sir John A. MacDonald’s announcement that Canada’s goal was “to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the inhabitants of the Dominion.” The act specified how Indigenous people were put “under the protection” of the Crown. It provided the legal base for the treaties, and it emphasized the government’s central priorities of “assimilation, enfranchisement, and civilization.”

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 2: Assimilation is still a priority. Current federal government registration policies for receiving recognition as a status Indian will eventually lead to the elimination of status Indians.

Participant - Scroll 3: The Indian Act - All laws respecting “Indians” were first consolidated into the Indian Act in 1876. It is still in force today and was last updated in 2011.

European - Scroll E, Part I (reads the first part of this scroll in a loud voice): Now hear this! According to the Indian Act of 1876 and the British North America Act of 1867, you and all of your territories are now under the direct control of the Canadian federal government. You will be placed on reserves. Please fold your blankets until they are just large enough to stand on.

Participant or Narrator - Background Scroll 3: Through the Indian Act, the Department of Indian Affairs took complete control over your economic, social and political affairs. Your cultures were the last barrier to colonization so their foundations were attacked by this act. Hunting and fishing


were restricted. Ceremonies like the potlatch, sundance and pow-wow, all vital aspects of life for many First Nations, were outlawed. The federal government took control of deciding who was and was not an “Indian”, and Indigenous women who married non-Indigenous men lost their Indian status. You went from being independent First Nations, with your own governance structures, into impoverished “bands”, and as individuals, you became “wards of the state.” The Inuit were included under the Indian Act in 1939. The Métis are not covered by the Indian Act.

European - Scroll E Part II (reads the second part of this scroll in a loud voice): You may not leave your reserve without a permit. You may not vote. You may not gather to discuss your rights. You may not practice your traditional spirituality or your traditional forms of government. To do any of these things is to face prosecution and imprisonment.

Narrator: The Indian Act also severely restricted Indigenous land rights. For example, under the Indian Act, it was illegal to raise money to fight for land rights in the courts until 1951.

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 3: The Indian Act continues to give the federal government the power to preside over many aspects of our lives. For example, under the Indian Act the federal government can abolish the customary government of a First Nation and impose band council elections.

Participant - Scroll 4: Enfranchisement - Under this federal policy, all First Nation people who became doctors, lawyers or who entered other professions would be granted “enfranchisement”, and be forced to give up our legal Indian status. In other words, the government would “reclassify” Indigenous people who were entering professions, as Canadians, making us ineligible for treaty benefits. Since this included lawyers, it effectively prevented land rights cases from reaching the courts during the first half of the 1900s.

Participant - Scroll 5: Assimilation – Over a hundred years ago it was widely assumed that the so-called “Indian problem” would soon solve itself as Indigenous people

died from diseases and the survivors were absorbed into the larger society. As Indian Affairs deputy superintendent Duncan Campbell Scott stated, the government’s goal was “to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and that there is no Indian problem and no Indian Department.”

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 5: One way the Canadian government pressures us to leave our lands is by failing to provide us with basic services:

• Overhalfthedrinkingwatersystemsonreserveposea significant risk to human health. (OAG 2011)

• Thereare85,000newhousingunitsneededonreserve and 60% of existing houses are in need of repair. (AFN 2012)

• Thereisinadequateaccesstohealthcarecontributing to situations such as rates of TB amongst the Inuit being 284 times higher than for Canadian-born non-Indigenous people. (NAHO 2012)

Participant - Scroll 6: Residential Schools - From 1820 to the 1970s, the federal government removed us, the First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, from our homes and communities and placed us in church-run boarding schools, often far from our families. In most cases we were not allowed to speak our own languages. Most of us stayed at the school for 8-10 months, while others stayed all year. While some of us report having positive experiences at the schools, many of us suffered from the impoverished conditions and from emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Many more of us lost family connections and the opportunity to learn our culture and traditions from our elders. Raised in an institution, most of us lost our parenting skills. Some students died at residential school. Many of us never returned to our home communities, or were shunned if we did. The last federally-run residential school closed in 1996.

Narrator: All people with yellow cards must now move in groups to separate, empty blankets (the european can decide who goes where). You represent those who were


taken out of your communities and placed in residential schools far from home.

The person with the yellow index card that is marked with an “X” must step off the blanket. You represent those who died as a result of their experience at residential schools.

All others with yellow cards, you may return to your home communities, though you may always struggle to feel at home with your own people.

The Narrator asks those without index cards to turn their back on the returning “children” with yellow index cards, to symbolize the rejection and exclusion that they feel.

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 6: One goal of residential schools was to wipe out Indigenous languages. Federally funded schools on reserve currently get on average $2,000-$3,000 less per student, per year, than schools off reserve (Caledon Institute 2008) making it extremely difficult to address the issue of language loss caused by residential schools.

Participant - Scroll 7: The 1969 “White Paper” The “WhitePaper” was the Trudeau government’s attempt to solve the “Indian problem” by abolishing the Indian Act and assimilating Indigenous peoples into Euro-Canadian society. This outraged Indigenous peoples. We saw it as a termination of our rights and organized to defeat it. Out of this came the National Indian Brotherhood – now the Assembly of First Nations (or AFN) – as well as other Indigenous rights organizations.

The Narrator asks participants to unfold one small corner of their blankets to commemorate these successful acts of resistance against the federal government’s “termination” legislation. The European can intervene if people are unfolding too much of the blankets.

Participant - Scroll 8: Broken promises - Over the years, more than two-thirds of the land set aside for treaties has been lost or stolen. It has been taken through fraud,

mismanagement, intimidation, expropriation for military purposes, or for development. Rarely has the government attempted to replace this land, or to compensate us for its use.

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 8: By targeting women, you target the heart of the nation. In many Indigenous traditions, women are the carriers of culture and tradition. Indigenous women have been specifically targeted through federal legislation and policies that attempt to erode our communities and in so doing, make it easier to take our lands.

• Indigenouswomenareatleastthreetimesaslikelyto experience violence as non-Indigenous women in Canada. (Statistics Canada 2009)

• Almost6ooIndigenouswomenhavegonemissingor been murdered since the 1970s, and these are only the cases that have been documented. The real number is undoubtedly much higher.

Participant - Scroll 9: Meanwhile, large companies set up shop in our territories, generate huge profits from natural resources and often pollute and deplete the land, without regard to Indigenous or treaty rights, and without benefits flowing to Indigenous peoples.

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 9: A major cause of poverty in our communities is that virtually none of the profits from resource extraction on our lands flow to our communities. There are approximately eight times more on-reserve children in care than children living off reserve (OAG 2008). Often First Nations children enter care due to poverty; we as their parents are unable to provide them with the necessities of life. (Standing Committee on the Status of Women 2011)

Participant - Scroll 10: Extinguishing Rights - Canada’s extinguishment policy forces us to surrender our title and rights to the vast majority of our lands in return for a settlement that limits our rights and gives us access to


only a tiny fraction of our traditional territories. Canada has been criticized by national and international human rights experts for this policy. The current policy, which is called the “non-assertion, modified rights” policy, requires us to agree to never assert our rights. Numerous international and domestic human rights bodies, including the United Nations, have told Canada that requiring us to never assert our rights is the same as extinguishing those rights.

Narrator: Indigenous peoples continue to view treaties as sacred agreements between sovereign nations that must be honoured to ensure the equitable sharing of resources and a peaceful, just co-existence. But that view of treaties is generally not accepted by non-Indigenous society, which often views treaties as a form of surrender.

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 10: Treaties affirm our jurisdiction over our territories and are part of our right to self-determination. Failing to uphold Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination contributes to feelings of hopelessness, especially amongst our youth. Suicide rates amongst Indigenous youth are on average six times higher than they are amongst other youth in Canada, and 11 times higher for Inuit youth. (Health Canada)

Narrator: Recently, there have been some positive developments in the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on behalf of the Government of Canada, issued an official apology for the Indian Residential Schools system.

European - Scroll F: An excerpt from the Prime Minister’s Apology to Survivors of Indian Residential Schools: “Two primary objectives of the Residential Schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, “to kill the Indian in the child”. Today,

we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.”

Narrator: This apology was followed by the convening of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC’s five year mandate includes hearing the stories of residential school survivors and others, and documenting the truth of the residential school system.

Pause…

Narrator: In November, 2010, Canada endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Under development for more than 20 years, the Declaration is one of the most intensely debated human rights instruments in U.N. history. Indigenous peoples themselves have been an integral part of its development.

Participant - Scroll 11: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - The Declaration was a response to the lack of a comprehensive set of international standards on the rights of Indigenous peoples on the part of the United Nations. Although Canada had previously played an important role in developing the Declaration, it was one of only 4 countries to vote against it at the United Nations in 2007. In 2008, over 100 constitutional and Indigenous rights experts signed an open letter that said Canada’s reasons for opposing the Declaration as misleading, erroneous, and extraordinary.

Participant or Narrator - Background Scroll 11: Following years of action by Indigenous people, organizations and their partners – including church groups – the Government of Canada finally endorsed the Declaration on November 12, 2010. But it did so with qualifications, and described the Declaration as an “aspirational” document that is subject to existing Canadian law, including, of course, the Indian Act. Nevertheless, Canada’s endorsement of the Declaration has been heralded as a significant new moment in the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada by many Indigenous groups and their allies.


The Narrator asks all the remaining participants to unfold another corner of their blankets ONCE (again, if too much blanket is being unfolded, the European(s) can intervene), and asks one person to read the following quote:

Participant - Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 5- “The Declaration is fundamentally about building meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples across the globe, and with nation-states and with Indigenous rights supporters. It is about our relationships with each other, our lands, natural resources, our laws, our rights, our languages, our spirituality, our ways of life.”—Phil Fontaine, Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Narrator: In order for these good words and positive developments to be meaningful first steps towards genuine reconciliation and justice - and not simply more broken promises - they must be followed by tangible action from the Government of Canada and Canadians.

At this point, there should be only a few people remaining on blankets that have been folded over many times.

Participant - Scroll 12: The Government of Canada and the United Nations have repeatedly identified the conditions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples as Canada’s most pressing human rights problem. According to the U.N., Canada is consistently ranked one of the ten best places in the world to live. However, by the same measure, the living conditions of Indigenous peoples compares to those of nations ranked in the high 60s.

Narrator: And yet despite the Government of Canada’s concerted efforts to assimilate Indigenous peoples, you continue to resist and to pass down your languages, ceremonies, land-based practices and governance structures. But the violence of colonization has left a tremendous burden of pain and, as the Prime Minister stated in the residential schools apology, “the burden is properly ours as a Government, and as a country.”

RefleCTInG Invite those people who have stepped off the blankets to join those still on the blankets in a period of silent reflection. Ask them to look around the room and to compare what they see now to what they saw at the beginning of the exercise.

Then invite people to take their seats, leaving the blankets in place. Ask people to share their insights and emotions. What did they experience? What did they feel? What did they learn? Be aware that participating in such an exercise can have a strong impact on participants, especially First Nations, Inuit or Métis people. It is important to allow time for participants to share their feelings. If time permits, consider using a talking circle instead of a general discussion. In a talking circle, participants do not debate or challenge each other’s words. Instead, they practice listening. If possible, invite an Indigenous elder or spiritual leader to facilitate the circle.

Here is a suggested question for discussion: • Howhavenon-Indigenouspeoplebenefitedfromthe historical and current denial of Indigenous nationhood in Canada? In other words, how is the standard of living that most non-Indigenous people in Canada enjoy connected to the ongoing discrimination and inequity experienced by Indigenous peoples?

It may be helpful to incorporate the two case studies found on page 54 into the discussion.

The facilitator can note that we ended the Blanket Exercise by saying that good words of reconciliation and justice require concrete action if they are to be meaningful. In the Suggested Follow-Up to the Blanket Exercise on page 55 you will find a list of resources that can be used in guiding the discussion towards what participants can do to further what they have learned.


Participant - Hearing Indigenous Voices Scroll 1:

“Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.”—Georges Erasmus, Dene Nation, co-chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

Scrolls for Photocopying: Grades 9-12 & Adult Version


“At contact with Europeans, each of the hundreds of Indigenous Peoples of Indigenous America possessed all the elements of nationhood that were well-established by European settlers: territory, governing structures, legal systems and a historical continuity with our territories. Nothing since the arrival of Columbus has occurred to merit any reduction in the international legal status of Indigenous Peoples. The recognition of Indigenous Nations and our rights possess no threat to non-Indigenous Peoples.”—Sharon Venne, Cree

Participant - Hearings Indigenous Voices Scroll 3:

“First Nations are nations. First Nations (treaty people) signed over 300 treaties with the Europeans during the 1700s and 1800s. The treaties agreed to share the lands and resources with the immigrants. … Under existing legislation, treaty people are “sovereign” nations. … The Indians surrendered over 9.9 million square kilometres of their land to the immigrants. Today, the sons of the immigrants have the largest treaty rights in Canada. The Indians have become the poorest peoples in Canada.” —Chief Pascall Bighetty, Pukatawagan First Nation


European - Scroll B (in a loud voice):

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 hereby confirms that Indigenous nations have title to their lands, and that consensual treaty-making with the Crown is the only way that land can be ceded from Indigenous peoples. The year 2013 marks the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation.

European - Scroll C:

“Infect the Indians with sheets upon which smallpox patients have been lying, or by any other means which may exterminate this accursed race.” (Lord Jeffery Amherst)

European - Scroll A (in a loud, pompous voice):

We … by the authority of Almighty God … give, grant, and assign to you and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile and Leon, forever, all islands and main lands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered towards the west and south, … from the Arctic pole … to the Antarctic pole … And we make, appoint, and depute you and your said heirs and successors lords of them with full and free power, authority, and jurisdiction of every kind.

Participant - Hearings Indigenous Voices Scroll 4:

“Our cultures, our religions, our governments and our ways of life are all in danger. We are not simply individuals with individual’s rights; on the contrary, we exist as distinct peoples, distinct communities, real functioning nations. We hold our lands in common; we hold our cultures and religions as nations and as communities and groups.”—ChiefJakeSwamp,WolfClanoftheMohawkNation,Haudenosaunee.


European - Scroll D:

You represent those First Peoples – the Inuit, and the Innu at Davis Inlet, and countless other Indigenous communities – who suffered and sometimes died through forced relocation. Please move one of the blankets away from the others, fold it small and sit down on it.

Participant - Today is reality Context Scroll 1:

The Doctrine of Discovery embodies a colonial mentality and is the legal basis for Canada’s existence. In a contemporary context, it continues to oppress Indigenous peoples through laws that do not recognize our right to govern ourselves, which has a negative impact on our identities, languages and cultures. It also forces us - not the settlers- to prove title to the land.

Participant - Scroll 1: Terra nullius

The notion of Terra Nullius, which in Latin means “empty land” – gave a colonial nation the right to take over any territory encountered by explorers. These were the hunting and trapping lands of Indigenous peoples.

Participant or Narrator - Background Scroll 1:

If the land was deemed “empty” by the settler government it was considered subject to the Doctrine of Discovery and could be claimed by the European explorers. Over time, this concept was conveniently expanded to include lands not occupied by “civilized” peoples, or lands not being put to “civilized” use.


Participant - Scroll 3: The Indian Act

All laws respecting “Indians” were put together into the Indian Act in 1876. It is still in force today and was last updated in 2011.


The BNA Act was drafted in part to provide policy “teeth” for Sir John A. MacDonald’s announcement that Canada’s goal was “to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the inhabitants of the Dominion.” The act spelled out how Indigenous people were put “under the protection” of the Crown. It provided the legal base for the treaties, and it emphasized the government’s central priorities of “assimilation, enfranchisement, and civilization.”


Assimilation is still a priority. Current federal government registration policies for receiving recognition as a status Indian will eventually lead to the total disappearance of status Indians.

Participant - Scroll 2: The British north America (BnA) Act

The BNA Act, also known as the Constitution Act of 1867, put “Indians and Lands reserved for Indians” under the control of the federal government.


European - Scroll E, Part I (reads the first part of this scroll in a loud voice):

Now hear this! According to the Indian Act of 1876 and the British North America Act of 1867, you and all of your territories are now under the direct control of the Canadian federal government. You will be placed on reserves. Please fold your blankets until they are just large enough to stand on.


Through the Indian Act, the Department of Indian Affairs took complete control over your economic, social and political affairs. Your cultures were the last barrier to colonization so their foundations were attacked by this act. Hunting and fishing were restricted, and the potlatch, sundance and pow-wow, all vital aspects of life for many First Nations, were outlawed. The federal government took control of deciding who was and was not an “Indian”, and Indigenous women who married non-Indigenous men lost their Indian status. You went from being independent First Nations, with your own government, to “bands”, living in poverty. As individuals, you became “wards of the state.” The Inuit were included under the Indian Act in 1939. The Métis are not covered by the Indian Act.

European - Scroll E Part II (reads the second part of this scroll in a loud voice):

You may not leave your reserve without a permit. You may not vote. You may not gather to discuss your rights. You may not practice your traditional spirituality or your traditional forms of government. Doing any of these things means you will face a trial and even jail.


Participant - Scroll 5: Assimilation (ah-sim-ill-eh-shun)

Over a hundred years ago it was widely assumed that the so-called “Indian problem” would soon solve itself as Indigenous people died from diseases and the survivors were absorbed into the larger society. As Indian Affairs deputy superintendent Duncan Campbell Scott stated, the government’s goal was “to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and that there is no Indian problem and no Indian Department.”


The Indian Act continues to give the federal government the power to preside over many aspects of our lives. For example, under the Indian Act the federal government can abolish the customary government of a First Nation and impose band council elections.

Participant - Scroll 4: enfranchisement (en-fran-ChISe-ment)

Under this federal policy, all First Nation people who became doctors, lawyers or who entered other professions would be granted “enfranchisement”, and be forced to give up our legal Indian status. In other words, the government would “reclassify” Indigenous people who were entering professions, as Canadians, making us ineligible for treaty benefits. Since this included lawyers, it effectively prevented land rights cases from reaching the courts during the first half of the 1900s.


Participant - Scroll 6: Residential Schools

From 1820 to the 1970s, the federal government removed us, the First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, from our homes and communities and placed us in church-run boarding schools, often far from our families. In most cases we were not allowed to speak our own languages. Most of us stayed at the school for 8-10 months, while others stayed all year. While some of us report having positive experiences at the schools, many of us suffered from the impoverished conditions and from emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Many more of us lost family connections and the opportunity to learn our culture and traditions from our elders. We were raised in an institution, so most of us lost our parenting skills. Some students died at residential school. Many of us never returned to our home communities, or were shunned if we did. The last federally-run residential school closed in 1996.


One way the Canadian government pressures us to leave our lands is by failing to provide us with basic services:

• Overhalfthedrinkingwatersystemsonreservesposeasignificantrisktohuman health.

• Thereare85,000newhousingunitsneededonreserveand60%ofexisting houses are in need of repair.

• Thereisinadequateaccesstohealthcarecontributingtosituationssuchas rates of TB amongst the Inuit being 284 times higher than for Canadian-born non-Indigenous people.


One goal of residential schools was to do away with Indigenous languages. Federally funded schools on reserve currently get on average $2,000-$3,000 less per student, per year, than schools off reserve making it extremely difficult to address the issue of language loss caused by residential schools.



By targeting women, you target the heart of the nation. In many Indigenous traditions, women are the carriers of culture and tradition. Indigenous women have been targeted through federal legislation and policies that our communities, try to weaken and take our lands.

• Indigenouswomenareatleastthreetimesaslikelytoexperienceviolenceas non-Indigenous women in Canada.

• Almost6ooIndigenouswomenhavegonemissingorbeenmurderedsince the 1970s. These are only the cases that have been documented. The real number is certainly much higher.

Participant - Scroll 7: The 1969 “white Paper”

The “WhitePaper”was the Trudeau government’s attempt to solve the “Indian problem” by getting rid of the Indian Act and assimilating Indigenous peoples into Euro-Canadian society. This outraged Indigenous peoples. We saw it as a termination of our rights and organized to defeat it. Out of this came the National Indian Brotherhood – now the Assembly of First Nations (or AFN) – as well as other Indigenous rights organizations.

Participant - Scroll 8: Broken promises

Over the years, more than two-thirds of the land set aside for treaties has been lost or stolen. It has been taken through fraud, mismanagement, and threats. It was taken away for military purposes, or for development. Rarely has the government attempted to replace this land, or to compensate us for its use.


Participant - Scroll 10: extinguishing Rights (ex-TInG-gwish-ing)

Canada’s extinguishment policy forces us to surrender our title and rights to almost all of our lands. In return we get a settlement that limits our rights and gives us access to only a tiny fraction of our traditional territories. Canada has been criticized by national and international human rights experts for this policy. The current policy, requires us to agree to never claim our rights. Numerous international and domestic human rights bodies, including the United Nations, have told Canada that requiring us to never assert our rights is the same as extinguishing those rights.

Participant - Scroll 9:

Meanwhile, large companies set up shop in our territories, make huge profits from natural resources and often pollute and exhaust the land. They do this without respecting Indigenous or treaty rights, and without benefits flowing to Indigenous peoples.


A major cause of poverty in our communities is that almost none of the profits from resource extraction on our lands flow to our communities. There are approximately eight times more on-reserve children in foster care than children living off-reserve. Often First Nations children enter care due to poverty; we as their parents are unable to provide them with the basics of life.


Participant - Scroll 11: united nations declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The Declaration was a response to the lack of a comprehensive set of international standards on the rights of Indigenous peoples at the United Nations. Although Canada had previously played an important role in developing the Declaration, it was one of only 4 countries to vote against it at the United Nations in 2007. In 2008, over 100 constitutional and Indigenous rights experts signed an open letter that characterized Canada’s reasons for opposing the Declaration as misleading, erroneous, and extraordinary.


Treaties affirm our jurisdiction over our territories and are part of our right to self-determination. Failing to uphold Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination contributes to feelings of hopelessness especially amongst our youth. Suicide rates amongst our youth are on average six times higher than they are amongst other youth in Canada, and 11 times higher for Inuit youth.

European - Scroll F:

An excerpt from the Prime Minister’s Apology to Survivors of Indian Residential Schools: “Two primary objectives of the Residential Schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, “to kill the Indian in the child”. Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.”



Following years of action by Indigenous people, organizations and their partners – including church groups – the Government of Canada finally endorsed the Declaration on November 12, 2010. But it did so with qualifications, and described the Declaration as an “aspirational” document that is subject to existing Canadian law, including of course the Indian Act. Nevertheless, Canada’s endorsement of the Declaration has been heralded as a significant new moment in the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada by many Indigenous groups and their allies.


“The Declaration is fundamentally about building meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples across the globe, and with nation-states and with Indigenous rights supporters. It is about our relationships with each other, our lands, natural resources, our laws, our rights, our languages, our spirituality, our ways of life.” —Phil Fontaine, Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Participant - Scroll 12:

The Government of Canada and the United Nations have repeatedly said that the conditions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples as Canada’s most pressing human rights problem. According to the U.N., Canada is often ranked one of the ten best places in the world to live. However, by the same measure, the living conditions of Indigenous peoples compares to those of nations ranked 60 and higher.


JORdAn’S PRInCIPle:

Jordan’s Principle: Jordan River Anderson of the Norway House Cree Nation died in hospital at age 5 despite having been able to move to home care at age two. The reason he was never able to go home was that the different levels of government could not agree on who should pay for Jordan’s home care.

Jordan’s Principle sets out that no child should be caught in the middle of a dispute over funding. Rather, the government of first contact is responsible for initial payments that are in the best interest of the child. Disputes over reimbursement can be worked out separately between governments so they don’t prevent

a child from accessing health care services. Although this principle was adopted by the House of Commons as a private member’s bill in 2007, it has never been implemented.

The following U.N. Declaration article is a good example of where we find entrenchment of Jordan’s Principle. Article 24(2) “Indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of this right”.

For more information on Jordan’s Principle: http://www.fncfcs.com/jordans-principle

Case Studies

ShAnnen’S dReAm:

The school in Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario is condemned because the land it’s built on is contaminated by 50,000 liters of diesel fuel. For ten years the students have used run-down portables that are freezing in winter, are fire traps, and are infested with mice. According to a 2007 internal INAC document, “existing portables are in need of extensive repair” and there is “student overcrowding in classrooms.”

Since 2001, three federal Ministers of Indian Affairs have promised the students of Attawapiskat a new school. Those students are still waiting. By 2008, the grade eight students had had enough of the broken promises and the deplorable condition of their classrooms. Led by 13 year old student Shannen Koostachin, they travelled to Ottawa to ask for a new school, but then Minister of Indian Affairs Chuck Strahl said it was not possible. There is no timeline in place to provide the community with a new school.

Shannen’s goal of becoming a lawyer meant she had to leave home to attend high school in a community

hundreds of miles away. Tragically, while away at school, she died in a car accident. She was 15. Before her death she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. She also spearheaded a campaign that continues to gain momentum and has been re-named “Shannen’s Dream” in her honour.

On February 27, 2012, the Parliament of Canada voted unanimously in the House of Commons for a private member’s motion that “All First Nation Children Have an Equal Right to High-Quality, Culturally-Relevant Education”. It was a huge success for all those seeking equity for Indigenous peoples in Canada.

It was also the result of thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous children and youth who support “Shannen’s Dream”, which calls for “safe and comfy schools and culturally-based and equitable education” for First Nations students.

To learn more about Shannen’s Dream and what you can do as a group or as individuals, please visit http://www.fncfcs.com/shannensdream/.


Suggested Follow-up to the Blanket Exercise

Truth Reconciliation & Equity: What Can I Do: KAIROS has been invited to support the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in its public witness initiative. Inspired by this collaboration, and under the banner Truth, Reconciliation and Equity: They Matter to Us!, KAIROS proposes you can get involved: 1) make use of our workshop and resource materials; 2) be a public witness by submitting a photo of yourself and others holding a sign that says “Truth, Reconciliation and Equity: They Matter to Us!”; 3) meet with your MP to press for the full implementation of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; 4) host a display of banners from “Roll with the Declaration” and consider making a banner to hang somewhere in your community; 5) perform our campaign skit. All of this and more can be found on our campaign webpage: http://www.kairoscanada.org|tre.

The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada is working to give First Nations children the same chance as other Canadians to grow up safely at home, get a good education, be healthy, and be proud of their cultures. The Caring Society’s three main campaigns focus on areas where First Nations children experience discrimination: education, health, and child welfare. The Shannen’s Dream campaign is for safe and comfy schools and culturally based education for First Nations children: www.shannensdream.ca. The Jordan’s Principle campaign is working to ensure that First Nations children are not denied health services because the provincial and federal governments cannot agree on who should pay for those services: www.jordansprinciple.ca. The ‘i am a witness’ campaign calls on Canadians to follow an historic human rights case that has been brought against the federal government based on evidence that it is underfunding child welfare services on reserve: www.fnwitness.ca.

Each of these campaign pages lists a number of actions for people of all ages - actions which only take a few minutes, and are free.

‘The 100 Years of Loss’ edu-kit has been developed by

The Legacy of Hope Foundation. It is designed to support

educators and administrators in raising awareness and

teaching about the history and legacy of residential schools.

It is for Canadian youth aged 11 to 18 and includes six multi-

layered lesson plans, a wall-mounted timeline, and survivor

videos, as well as teacher resources and extension activities.

You can order your free edu-kit by going to the Foundation’s

website: http://www.legacyofhope.ca/projects/100-years-of-

loss-edu-kit

‘What Can I Do to Help the Families of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women and Girls?’ is a community

resource guide by the NativeWomen’sAssociationof

Canada. In it you will find toolkits, fact sheets, suggested

resources as well as information on how to respectfully

and safely introduce this issue into the classroom. It can be

downloaded for free from the NWAC website: www.nwac.ca

The Métis Education Kit/Trousses d’education metises

is an exciting resource for students, teachers, educators,

and community members to use inside and out of the

classroom. Created by the Métis Nation of Ontario, it can

be used to teach Métis history, culture and heritage. Each

kit contains a variety of items including a sash, flashcards,

fiddle music and a timeline of Métis history in Ontario.

Kits can be ordered online: http://www.metisnation.org/

programs/education--training/metis-education-kittrousses-

d%E2%80%99education-metisse.

Project of Heart is an award-winning initiative that

commemorates Indian residential schools. Small wooden

tiles are decorated, each in memory of a child who lost their

life at a residential school. The Project includes testimony

from a survivor and focuses on the learning that takes place

at the level of the spirit and heart and not just the mind.

Diverse groups of people are invited to be a part of this

initiative including schools, youth groups, worship groups

and activist groups. All the information to receive a kit can

be found at: http://www.projectofheart.ca/


KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives 310 Dupont Street, Suite 200 Toronto ON M5R 1V9 416-463-5312 | 1-877-403-8933 www.kairoscanada.org

The members of KAIROS are: the Anglican Church of Canada, Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Canadian Religious Conference, Christian Reformed Church in North America (Canada Corporation), Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Mennonite Central Committee Canada, the Presbyterian ChurchinCanada,thePrimate’sWorldReliefandDevelopmentFund,Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and the United Church of Canada.

a teaching tool by kairos to raise awareness and ...€¦ · or letter and type. for the grades 4-8...

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