Virtual Gathering – Healing Blanket

Northern Edge Algonquin and the Way of the Circle Centre are honoured to host a special evening with Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders to learn about Canada’s history from a more inclusive lens. Experiencing history that was not taught in schools can open our eyes to the past and provide a key to having more courageous conversations about our shared future. 

The KAIROS Blanket Exercise is a transformational activity that brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. The blanket exercise has been adapted as a virtual offering by Dr. Dawn Lavell-Harvard and First People’s House of Learning.

Together with circle members Aleyah-Erin Lennon and Jan Beaver, Dr. Dawn Lavell-Harvard will facilitate an engaging and educational story-sharing as well as a circle debrief.

“This is the great work of our time. How do we co-create spiritual community and remember our original instructions? The blanket exercise is a powerful experience that changes our readiness to interact in challenging conversations, understanding each of our roles and where we fit.” Aleyah-Erin Lennon

Through an immersive walk through the past, tracing the impact of leadership decisions to the present, participants will gain a more complete view of what has shaped our understanding of home. In the spirit of fostering relationships of peace, respect, and friendship here in Turtle Island, we offer this unique virtual event to the Edge community to step out of chronos (quantity) time and into kairos (quality) time together.

Learn more about the KAIROS Blanket Exercise that has inspired this virtual adaptation : Welcome to the KAIROS Blanket Exercise (2:54)

What: Interactive Virtual Kairos Blanket exercise

When: Friday, January 28, 5:30-8:30pm

Who: Northern Edge Algonquin Team, Co-facilitators, Mentors, Rainbow Dragon Wings, Wings of Light and our extended communities until registration is full.  Space is limited so please register to save your spot.

Please RSVP to [email protected] 

Participation is FREE, although donations are welcomed to Ontario Native Women’s Association (https://www.onwa.ca/) or  Way of the Circle Black, Indigenous and Racialized People scholarship fund.

This virtual experience of the Kairos Blanket Exercise has been made possible through support provided by the Holistic Centers Network (https://www.centersnetwork.org/) as part of our commitment to be accountable for greater equity, diversity, and inclusion at the Edge and in our home communities.

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Meet the Facilitation Team: Dr. Dawn Lavell Harvard, Aleyah-Erin Lennon, Jan Beaver

DAWN LAVELL HARVARD, PhD

Dr. Dawn Lavell Harvard, Ph.D., is a proud member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation, on Manitoulin Island, the first Aboriginal Trudeau Scholar, and has worked to advance the rights of Aboriginal women as the President of the Ontario Native Women’s Association since 2003. After serving as Vice-president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada for three years, Dawn was elected National President at the 41st Annual General Assembly, July 11, 2015 in Montreal, Quebec. After fulfilling her promise to see the MMIWG Inquiry initiated, in October 2016, Dawn left her role as National Leader and took on the role of Director at the First Peoples House of Learning at Trent University.

ALEYAH ERIN LENNON, RYT, OCT, MA.

Aleyah is a third-generation diasporic Irish descendant and white Settler Canadian who has lived her entire life in the territory of the Anishinaabeg in the Nayaano-nibiimaang Gichigamiin region. Throughout her academic and professional career, she has worked with and for Indigenous communities in service of their research agendas and ecological and educational mandates. In addition to her work in research and policy, Aleyah currently serves as a writer and embodied teacher sharing and co-creating knowledge about trauma-informed pedagogy, transforming settler consciousness, and Indigenous-settler relationship renewal. Aleyah currently lives and works in Kitigan Zibi, the territory of the Omamiwininiwag, and is working to transform her master’s thesis Unsettling Inner Landscapes: Critical Spirituality and the Poverty of Whiteness into a book for wider audiences.

JAN BEAVER

Jan Beaver is a storyteller, author of 6 children’s books, educational consultant and a co-facilitator at Northern Edge Algonquin. Her cultural background as a member of the Alderville First Nation (Anishinaabe)  has provided a solid foundation and many opportunities for bringing these traditions and values to her work in education and spiritual practice. Jan has been a Water Scientist with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, a classroom teacher, an outdoor education teacher with the Toronto District School Board and Senior Education Advisor for Ogemawahj Tribal Council in Rama. She has been a delegate to the World Congress of Education International and addressed the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations. Jan was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 in recognition of her work in education. Jan recently co-authored a book in 2021 with a team from Northern Edge Algonquin entitled The Way of the Circle to assist others in understanding the importance of the circle as a transformational tool for leadership.