Every parent hopes their new baby will sleep soundly and now students at a northwestern Ontario high school are doing what they can to give infants a better chance at peaceful slumbers, while also celebrating their own Indigenous culture.
Students at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Kenora are making traditional dreamcatchers and giving them to every baby born at the Lake of the Woods District Hospital, says Anishinaabemowin language teacher Sheila White.
Every dreamcatcher made by the students at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Kenora, Ontario is accompanied by this card. (Trina Henley/Kenora Catholic District School Board)
The dreamcatchers were originally made by the grandparents from red willow, which was shaped into a ring. Then a sinew web was strung, and decorated with feathers, or beads – each one a unique creation.
“They were hung on the tikanagan [cradleboard] to protect the gift of life, the baby. So, the bad dreams can’t find their way through the web and are trapped until the sun rises, and they disappear at sunrise and the good dreams flow through, letting the gift of life, the newborn, have good dreams,” said White.
Each dreamcatcher given out at the hospital is accompanied by a card which will help educate the broader community on its significance.
This card, which accompanies every dreamcatcher made by the students at St. Thomas Aquinas high school and given to a newborn at Lake of the Woods District Hospital in Kenora, Ont., explains the significance of the gift. (Trina Henley/Kenora Catholic District School Board)
“We are walking both on this land together and we need to move forward in learning about each other in order to live in the community together,” said White of this baby step in improving understanding and building cross-cultural relationships.
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive she said, with one mother telling White, “she had tears coming down when she was reading the story of the dreamcatcher.”
Making the dreamcatchers and delivering them to the new families is “important because it teaches a lot of things,” said grade 10 student Peneille Linklater, who is also finding new pride in her heritage and traditions through this initiative.
“It means a lot to me that I’m giving and sharing these gifts,” said Linklater.
The school plans to continue the dreamcatcher initiative, with White expecting they will need to make 250 to 300 each year.