Students learn to make dreamcatchers with Bougie Birch
The Mamidosewin Centre’s sewing room recently hosted a unique arts and crafts activity.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous students were invited to a dreamcatcher workshop on March 19. Students made their own dreamcatchers using metal rings, colourful beads and thread.
The workshop was facilitated by Ashley Clark, the founder and CEO of Bougie Birch, a social enterprise that holds a variety of Indigenous-led workshops. Clark assisted students with making their dreamcatchers while teaching them about their meanings.
“Dreamcatchers to me are so many things,” said Clark. “It represents a very special relationship that I have in my life with my aunt who passed away, and the dreamcatcher is a way for me to express my appreciation for the beautiful things in my culture.”
One of the most important things taught about dreamcatchers is that they do not need to be perfect, and when you make them, you must put positive energy into them.
“The trickiest part of making a dreamcatcher is battling the desire for perfection that is cultivated in urban colonial centres, because perfect doesn’t exist in nature,” said Clark. “So, you’re able to really connect with your spirit hopefully by the end of the workshop.”
Geraldine Dion St-Pierre, an ASPIRE AC mentor, agreed with Clark.
“I really like what Ashley said, that there is no perfection in nature, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. I’m somebody that really agrees with that philosophy, that perfection doesn’t exist,” said St-Pierre.
“I could see some of the students around me were struggling with the fact that it wasn’t perfect, they wanted theirs to be symmetrical, but they ended up being beautiful. Mine wasn’t symmetrical but I was okay with it because I listened to Ashley.”
ASPIRE AC is a resource that helps students through multiple aspects of their post-secondary school journey, from helping them transition to college, to finding employment after graduating. ASPIRE partnered with the Mamidosewin Centre to make this workshop possible and brought free merchandise for the participants, such as notebooks, toques and stress balls.
The dreamcatchers came out beautifully, and students enjoyed making and learning about them. Each student had their own opinion of what dreamcatchers mean to them.
“It’s a traditional gift that helps with catching bad dreams,” said Jesse Kavanaugh, an Algonquin College student and Mamidosewin Centre staff member. “I think it also shows that you care about somebody, and it means a lot especially when you make it yourself and it is beautiful.”
