Aboriginal Craft Club

Students have indicated to me that they would like more opportunities to learn various traditional crafts. I myself am skilled at beading, making dreamcatchers and moccasins and would therefore love an opportunity to share these skills with the students. Crafting supplies can be expensive and unfortunately I cannot stretch my budget to accommodate said supplies—that is where you come in! With your help, I hope to be able to teach students some interesting and unique crafts that speak to the Aboriginal learner. By incorporating more traditional activities, I hope to engage students in their education to help ensure their success. I am certain that were I to create this crafting club, students will make friends, develop leadership skills and enhance our community of learning. I know the students are incredibly talented and will undoubtedly teach me some new skills as well.

Update (May 24, 2017)

With the Aboriginal Craft Club we decided to make dreamcatchers. A couple weeks ago I made a dreamcatcher as an exemplar that the students were therefore able to base their designs off. The dreamcatcher is important in Aboriginal culture. As a circle it represents the unity and cyclical nature of life. The legend of the dreamcatcher speaks of a spiderwoman who wove the first dreamcatcher to catch bad dreams before they enter the sleeping person's mind. The bad dreams get caught on the web while the good dreams flow through the centre, down the feathers and into the sleeping person's mind. The first light of day will evaporate the bad dreams much like dew on a spider web.

Update (May 24, 2017)

As part of our craft club we were responsible for making tobacco ties as thanks for the elders, dancers and drummers who assisted with the powwow we held here at the school. Students learned the importance of traditional tobacco and how it differs from commercial tobacco. They now know how to make their own tobacco tie should they wish to thank or ask an elder for guidance.