Decolonizing Our Classrooms: The Blanket Exercise for Faculty, Instructors and Staff

Facilitated by Aboriginal Education Council.

Ryerson University is committed to the truth and reconciliation process, which includes acknowledging the role that our namesake had in the conception of residential schools and creating a learning environment which welcomes and respects Aboriginal people. This workshop offers faculty an opportunity to participate in a blanket exercise, an experiential teaching tool to share the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. Developed in response to the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (external link)  -- which recommended education on Canadian-Indigenous history as one of the key steps to reconciliation -- the Blanket Exercise covers over 500 years of history in a one and a half hour participatory workshop. Prior to attendance participants to the Blanket Exercise should watch the following Public Service Alliance of Canada video “Justice for Aboriginal Peoples - It’s time” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DrXZUIinU.

Further resources are also available at http://kairosblanketexercise.org/edu-kit/recommended-resources (external link) 

Space in the workshop is limited to a maximum of 30 participants.