West Coast Indigenous Dream Catchers

In some Indigenous cultures, a dreamcatcher or dream catcher is a handmade willow hoop, on which is woven a net or web. It may also include sacred items such as certain feathers or beads. They believe that, through the use of a dream catcher, an individual can protect themselves from negative dreams while letting positive dreams through the hole of the dream catcher.

Dream catchers originated with the Ojibwe people and were gradually adopted by some neighbouring nations through intermarriage and trade. This continued and, by the 1960s and 1970s, they had been adopted by a large number of Indigenous people of diverse cultures.

Because of this, some consider the dream catcher a symbol of unity among the Indigenous or Aboriginal people. However, many other Indigenous people have come to see dream catchers as over-commercialized, offensively misappropriated and misused by non-natives.

At Canadian Indigenous Art, we ensure our gallery only includes handcrafted dream catchers from authentic Squamish Nation Artists.