Community members gathered to promote the principles of truth and reconciliation in Okotoks.
A blanket exercise was held at the McMan Okotoks Family Resource Network on May 3, during which participants role-played as members of Indigenous communities before, during and after European settlement.
Blackfoot elder Ruth Scalp Lock helped facilitate the event and shared her own experiences as a residential school survivor.
According to McMan Family Resource Network Indigenous learning and engagement coordinator Sidney Gill, the blanket exercise "employs Indigenous methodologies to explore our shared history as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Kanata."
Employees of McMan, Foothills School Division, Alberta Health Services, Minds Matter, the Town of Okotoks and the Western Wheel were among the participants.
The blanket exercise happened ahead of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ Peoples, which is being commemorated in Okotoks on Sunday, May 5 with a pipe ceremony. Scalp Lock will be a special guest at the event.
Learn more about the McMan Okotoks Family Resource Network on its website.
