Indigenous Rights
KAIROS Blanket Exercise deepens RCMP Alberta Division’s cultural awareness
January 11, 2017
Marilyn McSporran couldn’t forget the moment years ago when one of her husband’s colleagues in the RCMP made an ugly remark about Indigenous peoples. When an Elder in Saddle Lake, Alberta gently encouraged her to introduce the KAIROS Blanket Exercise…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
Students learn indigenous history by reenacting colonization in unique blanket exercise
December 26, 2016
Blankets, a script and a circle of people provides a powerful lesson to classes from the Toronto Catholic board The blankets represent Turtle Island (North America) before the exercise. As part of its endeavour to get students to learn history…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
Upcoming KAIROS Blanket Exercise Facilitator Trainings
December 16, 2016
These sessions prepare you to lead the Blanket Exercise, a powerful teaching tool to foster truth and reconciliation. When and Where: Upcoming Facilitator Training: KAIROS Blanket Exercise Toronto Facilitator Training Thursday, January 19, 2017 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Coffee and…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
National day of prayer in solidarity with Indigenous peoples
December 15, 2016
For the past two years, after having followed a training course with KAIROS — of which Development and Peace – Caritas Canada is a member — I have the honour and privilege of being able to facilitate “the Blanket Exercise”…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
KAIROS response to federal government decisions on pipeline projects
November 30, 2016
KAIROS is dismayed with the federal government’s decision to approve the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, as announced by Prime Minister Trudeau on November 29. This decision is incompatible with the government’s commitment to respect and implement the UN…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Indigenous Rights
Winds of Change campaign update: 1,700 signatures presented in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly
November 11, 2016
Photo caption: Linda Scherzinger, KAIROS Halifax, delivers 1700 signatures to Gary Burrill, Leader of the Nova Scotia NDP prior to presentation in the House of Assembly. The voices of 1,700 Nova Scotians who signed the Nova Scotia KAIROS Petition supporting TRC…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
Stand with Standing Rock, pray with Standing Rock on November 3, 2016
November 2, 2016
Many eyes are fixed on Standing Rock, North Dakota and the proposed construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, an oil pipeline that would run beside the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and cross the Missouri River, the main source of drinking…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
Winds of Change campaign update: Education for reconciliation initiative picks up steam in Ontario
October 31, 2016
Like the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples 20 years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada identified education as key to reconciliation. Last November KAIROS and the Legacy of Hope Foundation launched the Education for Reconciliation (E4R) initiative as…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
KAIROS Blanket Exercise brings understanding and empathy
October 26, 2016
Participants take part in a blanket exercise, an interactive learning experience that teaches indigenous rights history, at the St. Albert United Church. “Those with blue cards, please step off the blankets.” And with those words, I was asked to take…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
Announcing… a KAIROS Blanket Exercise Youth Exchange with Guatemala
October 19, 2016
KAIROS will take 2 First Nations, 2 Métis, 2 Inuk and 2 settler youth (18-30 years old) to Guatemala in May 2017 and facilitate 2 Guatemalan youth coming to Canada in June 2017 to find common ground across borders through…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
Living well this Thanksgiving
October 7, 2016
“Buen vivir means living well based on the knowledge of our peoples, not living better at the cost of others.” ~David Choquehuanca, Aymara, Bolivia This Thanksgiving I am holding fast to this vision of who we could be together, as Canadians,…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Indigenous Rights
Convenant Chain Link VII, October 14-15, 2016 – Register Now!
October 5, 2016
Hope for the Future: Education for Reconciliation The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has said that “education is the key to reconciliation”. All across Canada, people are responding to the need to address Indigenous history and issues both in and out…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
KAIROS online info-hub to aid inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
October 4, 2016
On October 4 – a day when Indigenous and non-Indigenous people gather to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) – KAIROS Canada launched the MMIWG Information Hub on kairoscanada.org, offering resources and updates related to the national…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights
MEDIA ADVISORY: BC-Yukon KAIROS urges municipal leaders to vote to halt Site C dam construction
September 27, 2016
At the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention, September 26-30, BC-Yukon KAIROS is urging that municipal leaders support resolution B31. Resolution B31 reads as follows: Whereas the proposed 60 meter high dam project at Site C on the Peace River…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Indigenous Rights, Media Releases
Blanket Exercise unfurls Indigenous history for Saskatoon leaders
September 22, 2016
The City of Saskatoon recently hosted a blanket exercise for a group of community leaders. (Submitted by Neal Kewistep) ‘Often there’s a lot of guilt and shame that comes up,’ says activity leader The City of Saskatoon is using blankets…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
MEDIA RELEASE: KAIROS online info-hub to aid inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women
September 21, 2016
(Toronto, ON) – On a day when Indigenous and non-Indigenous people gather to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG), KAIROS Canada launches the MMIWG Information Hub on kairoscanada.org, offering resources and updates related to the national inquiry…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights, Media Releases
Site C legal challenge on UNDRIP anniversary shows Indigenous rights are a long ways away
September 13, 2016
Nine years ago today, on September 13, 2007, the United Nations took an important step towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples when the General Assembly voted 144-4 to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. While 11 countries…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights, Op Eds, UNDRIP Blog Updates
Understanding the impact: the KAIROS Blanket Exercise at Algoma University
September 8, 2016
Algoma U students, staff and faculty take part in emotional history lesson: The KAIROS Blanket Exercise, a first at Sault school Shirley Horn, Algoma University chancellor, and Craig Chamberlin, Algoma University president, took part in an interactive Blanket Exercise dealing…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
Truth and reconciliation in Nova Scotia’s classrooms, a progress report
September 6, 2016
KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – When the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) on the horrible legacy of residential schools was released late last year Premier Stephen MacNeil confirmed his commitment to implement its recommendations. KAIROS, a Canada-wide ecumenical movement…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
Gendered Impacts of Extractivism and Alternatives: A Convergence of Ideas
August 16, 2016
On August 11 at the World Social Forum, KAIROS and Mining Watch Canada drew a diverse and passionate group from across Canada, South America and Africa to their panel ‘North-South Dialogue on Extractivism, Resistance and Alternatives’. Jamie Kneen (MiningWatch) along…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights
Reflection on the Spanish version of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, at the World Social Forum
August 12, 2016
“Participants (of the Spanish version of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise at the World Social Forum in Montreal) very quickly make connections between the history of colonization in Canada and the history of colonization in Latin America.” Alfredo Barahona, Indigenous, Migrant &…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
VIDEO: Alma Brooks, Maliseet grandmother, speaks on the gendered impacts of resource extraction
August 12, 2016
“What befalls the earth, befalls the women of the earth. When the land and water are ravished and poisoned and destroyed, the women are deeply affected. As Indigenous women, the connection to our homeland is not only physical, it is…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights
Those at the heart of the resistant movement: Report from the Indigenous women, territory and mining workshop
August 11, 2016
On August 10 at the World Social Forum, KAIROS joined a panel facilitated by Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) to speak about the struggles that Indigenous women face in defending their land and resources from corporate extraction. Indigenous leaders…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights
KAIROS at the opening march of the World Social Forum 2016
August 10, 2016
Late in the afternoon on August 9, tens of thousands of activists from Canada and abroad met at the edge of Parc La Fontaine, waving banners of all colours, excited to begin the opening march for the World Social Forum…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
KAIROS response to Government of Canada decision to issue permits for Site C dam project
August 5, 2016
KAIROS joins Indigenous partners in expressing dismay over the federal government’s decision to issue permits for the construction of the Site C dam in British Columbia without the free, prior and informed consent of the peoples whose ancestral lands will…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Indigenous Rights
Spanish KAIROS Blanket Exercise connects colonial dots
August 4, 2016
Despite the parallels between the history of colonization in North, Central and South America, if you ask Latin American expats what they know about Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Indian Residential Schools, most will answer “not much.” In an…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
KAIROS statement into the inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women
August 4, 2016
The Government of Canada officially launched the long-awaited National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls on August 3, 2016 “to identify and examine the systemic causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls.” KAIROS Executive Director Jennifer…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights
Patchwork of colonization: Blanket Exercise explains colonization effectively
August 4, 2016
About 200 people took part in the Blanket Exercise at the Manitoba Legislative Building in early June. On a Saturday in early June, about 200 people gathered in front of the steps of the Legislative Building to participate in…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights
