If anyone is reading this and taking it as permission to go out and make your own dreamcatcher or buy one from a non-Native artist, please rest assured and know that I hate you.
This post is about the misappropriation of dreamcatchers and the ways that they’ve been removed from their context and turned into something they’re not, which is the direct fault of them becoming popular outside of Native communities. They may not be some huge, sacred, ceremonial thing but they are still an important part of Ojibwe culture that has been stolen from us and used as a way for settlers to profit off of bastardized Native traditions.
Stop buying them from non-Native creators. Stop making your own if you’re not Native. Stop tattooing them on your body. Stop making jewelry with them. Stop printing them on clothes or home decor. Just fucking stop.
If you do buy one from a Native creator (preferably an Ojibwe person), don’t have it on a wall. A dreamcatcher should traditionally hang over the crib or bed with both sides uncovered, or in a window. It should be positioned so that the light of the rising sun touches it to burn away what it’s caught. If that’s not possible, just try to put it somewhere that the sun will hit at any point in the day.
If the child you’re buying it for is prone to bad dreams or nightmares, buy a dreamcatcher with a bead in the web, representing a spider, as extra protection. Some people will add more than one bead, so if you feel like it’s necessary, ask if that’s an option. Try to buy one with at least feather hanging from it because that’s how the good dreams are released from the web, by dripping down the feathers.
Some traditionally made dreamcatchers fall apart or collapse in on themselves after a year or so. It’s not because they’re badly designed or whatever, it’s because they’re something that children are meant to grow out of needing so they aren’t built to last.
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