Join American Indian educator, Stacy Palmer, and make your own contemporary dreamcatcher on Saturday, Nov. 18th at 2 p.m. at the Gallery in the Wolfe Den classroom amongst the exhibit: “Native American Art: Past and Present”.
Ethnographers now believe dream catchers originated from the Ojibwa Chippewa tribe, an Anishinaabe people from the area that is currently southern Canada and the northern Midwestern United States.
The Ojibwa tribe believe that the night air is filled with dreams, both good and bad. The dream catcher attracts and catches all sorts of dreams, nightmares and thoughts into its protective woven spider web. Good dreams can pass through the sacred hoop and gently slide down the feathers to comfort the sleeper below. Bad dreams, however, are caught up in its net and destroyed, burned up in the light of day. For this reason, dreamcatchers traditionally must be hung above the bed in a place where morning sunlight can reach it.
Authentic dreamcatchers are made of spiritual sacred objects: a wooden hoop, sinew, strips of leather, feathers, beads and other objects. Some objects hang below the center of the “Sacred Hoop”. The Ojibwa tribe was inspired by spiders, believed to be their guardians and protectors.
Native Americans believed in a mystical Spider Woman whose mission was to protect babies and children as well as other members of the tribe while they were vulnerable in sleep. As the tribe grew and migrated around the country, she was no longer capable of protecting the entire tribe. As a result, she created the dream catcher as a way of protecting the growing tribe. Because of this belief, mothers and grandmothers began recreating the dreamcatcher and it evolved into a maternal memento.
NWFA so appreciates Stacy Palmer for teaching this class. Stacy teaches native culture at North Woods Elementary School, Cook/Orr, St. Louis County, Minnesota. She is also a member of the Bois Forte Chippewa band. In this class students will create a contemporary 10 inch diameter Dreamcatcher in Cook at the Northwoods Friends of the Arts Gallery at 210 S. River St. located adjacent to the Dreamweaver Day Spa and Salon. Students must preregister for the class by calling Alberta at 218 666-2153. As a non-profit NWFA charges minimal fees for classes. This class fee is $15 for NWFA members and $20 for non-members. There is a supply fee of $30. NWFA membership is $25.