On June 7, 2026, the ADRA Hub hosted a deeply moving Kairos Blanket Exercise, bringing together the ADRA Hub Board, staff, and dedicated volunteers. Joining them were staff members from our close partner, Thrive Community Support Circle. The collaborative event was designed to deepen understanding, foster empathy, and actively participate in the ongoing journey of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

The Kairos Blanket Exercise (KBE) is a powerful, interactive, and experiential teaching tool developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and educators. Unlike standard history lessons, the exercise physically places participants into history. Blankets are arranged on the floor to represent Turtle Island (the land now known as Canada), and participants step onto them, taking on the roles of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

Guided by facilitators reading from a historical script, participants experience the timeline of pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization, and resistance. As the narrative progresses through centuries of assimilation policies, disease, and forced relocation, the blankets are gradually folded or removed. Participants are asked to step off the blankets, starkly illustrating how Indigenous communities were separated from their land and ancestral ways of life.

The event concluded with a traditional sharing circle, giving the team from both ADRA Hub and Thrive Community Support Circle a safe space to process their emotions, share profound insights, and ask questions. By engaging both the heart and the mind, the exercise equipped the organizations with a vital, shared foundation of truth to guide their community-led support work forward. We shared a meal together afterwards to further extend our partnerships and understanding.