Session Topic

As organizational leaders work to bring forward within their organizations teaching and learning practices that are inclusive, there is an opportunity for leaders and their teams to learn about the teaching and learning methodologies and philosophies of our Indigenous communities.

The Blanket Exercise is a very important starting point for educators working within a corporate environment to build an understanding about the shared history we have as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of Canada.

The Blanket Exercise was first developed by the organization KAIROS in the late 1990s as a response to the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and it's been gaining popularity as a teaching tool in recent years. It is an experience where facilitators walk participants through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance. Everyone actively participants and becomes involved as they step onto blankets that represent the land, and into the role of First Nations, Inuit and later Métis peoples. By engaging on an emotional and intellectual level, the Blanket Exercise effectively educates and increases an understanding and empathy before we can begin to learn how we need to change and adapt adult educators’ traditional way’s of teaching and learning within organizations to be more inclusive.

About the Facilitator

Heidi Marshall is an adjunct professor at Cape Breton University, president of the Mi'kmaq Circle of Hope Society, and a co-founder of the Jane Paul Indigenous Resource Centre. She is a knowledge keeper, language warrior and a great-grandmother. Her education consists of a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Political Science (CBU), a Bachelor of Law at Dalhousie University and a Master of Education from Mount Saint Vincent University. Heidi is President/owner of a consultant business, Ma’sl Advisory and a consulting Services wela’lin.

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