Catching good dreams, killing the bad ones… Meet Bulawayo’s dream catcher maker

Flora Fadzai Sibanda , Chronicle Reporter

For many cultures throughout the world, spiders are dreaded and frightening insects. For the Ojibwe tribe of North America, however, they were actually a symbol of protection and comfort. An old Ojibwe legend says that at the origin of the world, a mystical woman was nicknamed “the spider woman”.

She provided spiritual protection for the tribe, especially for young children, babies and new-borns, history tells us.

The Ojibwe tribe kept growing and expanding over the years. It became difficult for the spider woman to continue providing protection for all the tribe members who had migrated to distant lands. She then came up with the idea of creating the Native American dream catcher. Following her example, mothers and grandmothers in turn recreated it to protect their children and families from a distance.

Dream catchers, also called nets or traps, are a small hoop containing horsehair or feathers or any similar construction of string or yarn decorated with beads and shells. Native American dream catchers from the Ojibwe tribe were traditionally used as talismans.

Their purpose was to protect sleepers, especially children, from bad dreams, nightmares and evil spirits. Native Americans believed that at night the air was filled with dreams, both good and bad. They would hang the dream catcher over their beds.

They had to be careful that daylight could reach it. As its name suggests, it attracts and then catches in its web all kinds of dreams and thoughts.

The beautiful dreams then pass through the threads and slide down the feathers to reach the sleeper and comfort him. Bad dreams, on the other hand, are trapped in the web and then destroyed, burned by the daylight.

The interpretation of dreams has strongly influenced the cultural and spiritual beliefs of Native Americans for centuries. They believed that dreams had an influence on the conscious soul of the dreamer.

According to them, dreams could have an impact on character traits such as trust, maturity, kindness and loyalty.

The development of the Ojibwe tribe through intermarriage and exchanges, in particular, allowed the diffusion of this object.

A few years later, another tribe, Lakota, also began to use dream catchers. Globalisation has seen believers in dream catchers growing and spreading worldwide.

Zimbabwe has one such woman. Her name is Mrs Odette Van Heerden and she is from Bulawayo.

“To me dreams are an important aspect of one’s life, they can either break a person’s future or create and that is why l make these dream catchers,” she says.

Mrs Van Heerden says she makes dream catchers as she believes that every important dream should be caught so that the owner does not forget it.

The dream catcher maker says the practice has been in the family for centuries now as it is the duty of everyone who is a mother in the family to teach her children .

She says making dream catchers started off as a hobby but she later saw its impact on people’s lives and decided to earnestly create dream catchers.

The dream catcher ornament maker says she started making them from a very young age as she got the skill from her mother.

With a calm voice and great interest showing in her eyes, Mrs Van Heerden told Chronicle about the importance of the dreamcatcher.

“Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams both good and bad. The dream catcher, when hung over or near your bed swinging freely in the air, catches the dreams as they come by,” she said.

“The good dreams know how to pass through the dream catcher, slipping through the outer holes and sliding down the soft feathers so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming and is captured into the mind of the sleeper.

“The bad dreams, not knowing the way, get tangled in the dream catcher and perish when the sun comes up, preventing the dreamer from remembering them,” she says.

Mrs Van Heerden says making dream catchers makes her feel calm.

“Making dream catchers makes me feel special and calm. It has been a tradition for the past centuries as my mother who was taught by her mother passed it on to me. I am also teaching my children right now,” she says.

She uses recycled stuff to make her dream catchers from home.

A dream catcher has a fairly small circumference and consists of a wooden ring covered with a canvas or net made of natural fibres. It is also decorated with sacred objects such as feathers and beads. All these elements must be natural.

The dream catcher is shaped like a circle, as it represents the circle of life. It is also a metaphor for the journey of the sun and the moon, each day and each night across the sky.

The canvas is responsible for catching bad dreams and evil spirits during the night, and getting rid of them when the day comes. Feathers, on the other hand, allow beautiful dreams to reach the sleeper.

“I collect pearls and shells from all over, l also use feathers. In simple terms l do not spend a lot of money when l am making these dream catchers,” said Mrs Van Heerden.

Mrs Odette Van Heerden, the Dream Catcher maker

She says in order for the dream catcher to work one needs to believe in it and its function.

“The dream catcher can be used for decorations and catching dreams. A lot of people prefer to use it for decorating as they do not know its purpose,” says Mrs Van Heerden.

She says her dream catchers are selling at different prices depending on the type and size that one wants.

“It is not about money so l sell them at a cheap price. They range from US$1 to US$5. This is to ensure that they are affordable to everyone who wishes to have them,” says Mrs Van Heerden.

A lot of people have misconceptions about dream catchers and Mrs Van Heerden has had to dispel negative perceptions.

“I have met a lot of people who look at me in a weird way when I tell them that I make dream catchers. They think it is some traditional ornament that has to do with rituals. I have however seen a lot of people change their misconception once they see the works of the dream catcher,” says Mrs Van Heerden.–@flora_sibanda

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