'Just the good dreams are left': Local Indigenous group builds Reconciliation Dreamcatcher

Waterloo -

A local Indigenous group has created a large dreamcatcher, as a way to move towards reconciliation.

Anishnabeg Outreach built an eight foot tall dreamcatcher, with the intention that it will spread out to the entire Waterloo Region.

“Instead of having nightmares, they have just the good dreams that are left instead,” said Stephen Jackson, CEO of Anishnabeg Outreach.  “It’s about bringing community together to achieve the outcomes of reconciliation.”

The dreamcatcher will be used as a form of healing, by turning nightmares into dreams.  The group said it will catch all the bad dreams, which will slide down to the feathers, and the nightmares will burn in the first ray of the morning light.

The outer ring of the four sided catcher has four medicines inside the wrappings – sage, cedar, sweet grass, and tobacco – as a way to “give power” to the dreamcatcher.

“Each of the medicines offers a form of protection,” said Melissa Joseph, cultural program support worker with Anishnabeg Outreach. “Cedar’s a women’s medicine, sweet grass and tobacco is our main medicine, it carries our prayers up to creator. The sage, is a purification medicine.”

The dreamcatcher now hangs 40 feet in the air, as a way for the community to dream of reconciliation together.