Dreamcatcher (Native American)
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- This is about the traditional native american object, for other uses of the word Dreamcatcher see disambiguation page
In Ojibwa (Chippewa) culture, a dreamcatcher is a handmade object based on a hoop (traditionally made of willow), incorporating a loose net, and decorated with items unique to the particular dreamcatcher.
While dreamcatchers originated in the Ojibwa Nation, during the pan-Indian movement of the 1960s and 1970s they were adopted by Native Americans of a number of different Nations. They came to be seen by some as a symbol of unity among the various Indian Nations, and as a general symbol of identification with Native American or First Nations cultures. However, other Native Americans have come to see them as "tacky" and over-commercialized.[1]
Traditionally, the Ojibwa construct dreamcatchers by tying sinew strands in a web around a small round or tear-shaped frame (in a way roughly similar to their method for making snowshoe webbing). The resulting "dream-catcher", hung above the bed, is then used as a charm to protect sleeping children from nightmares. The Ojibwa believe that a dreamcatcher filters a person's dreams - the good in their dreams is captured in the web of life and carried with them, but the evil in their dreams escapes through the hole in the center of the web and is no longer a part of them. It is hung above their beds or in their home, to sift their dreams and visions.
In the course of becoming popular outside of the Ojibwa Nation, and then outside of the pan-Indian communities, dreamcatchers are now made, exhibited and sold by some New age groups and individuals. This, however, is considered by most traditional Native peoples and their supporters to be an undesirable form of cultural appropriation.[1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jenkins, Philip (September 2004). Dream Catchers: How Mainstream America Discovered Native Spirituality. New York: Oxford University Press.
