THE BLANKET EXERCISE Date: Saturday…March 22, 2025 Start time: 12:30 pm. Location: St Gertrude’s Hall, Union Street, Woodstock **Be prepared to take your shoes off for the Blanket Exercise. For further information and to register please contact Trish… St John the Baptist Parish Office at 506-328-3306 or by email: sjbnb@rogers.com You must register to attend as there are limited spots (25). Please register early. The KAIROS Blanket Exercise is an interactive learning experience that tells the 500-year story that is rarely taught of the relationship between Indigenous peoples and European newcomers. KAIROS, is a national ecumenical social justice organization in which a number of churches and organizations are committee partners. Participants take on the roles of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Standing on blankets that represent the land, they walk through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization, and resistance. Facilitators, representing a narrator and the European colonizers, direct participants who are drawn into the experience by reading scrolls and carrying cards which ultimately determine their outcomes. By engaging on emotional and intellectual levels, the Blanket Exercise educates and deepens understanding about how yesterday’s history connects with today’s movement to secure respect for and recognition of Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and treaty rights.