On May 1st, St. Augustine’s grade eleven students witnessed firsthand the power of storytelling, using blankets. Blankets may be used as a source of comfort that keep us safe from the cold and bitterness of winter nights, but now there is a new purpose for the blankets. The Blanket Exercise is a way to visually understand the history of Canada’s First Nations. To just be taught about it in class, reading textbooks, it doesn’t fully help students to grasp the full impact of it.

When really it is a lot more than that, something the students learned when doing the exercise. At first they saw one big blanket made of many little ones, but as it went on they started to notice it grow smaller and smaller until it was nothing but a bunch on scattered blankets on the floor. The blankets represented the land–Turtle Island–other known as Canada. This exercise shows how the First Nations ended up split and isolated over our history.

The students didn’t just watch; they also participated. They became the first nations and, as they went along, more and more left the blankets, either dead, off to residential schools or even seen as outcasts to their community.

Over all the Blanket Exercise will forever impact the grade eleven students of St. A’s, helping them to never forget the dark chapter of Canadian history through the help of blankets.

By: Catherine D.
Photographer: Ms. Salvino 
05/17/2018