Dream, Learn, Achieve
Among the Indians of the woodlands, the Ojibwa believe that dreams have magical qualities; the ability to change or direct their path in life. Since the night air is filled with both good and bad dreams one of the traditional beliefs was to hang a dreamcatcher on an infants’ cradle board or in their lodges for the benefit of all. When hung, the dreamcatcher captures the dreams as they float by. The good dreams, knowing the way, slip through the centre hole, drifting gently off the soft feathers to the sleeper below. The bad dreams, not knowing the way, become entangled in the webbing, only to perish with the first light of the new day.
The idea of the dreamcatcher accepting the good and warding off the bad in the lives of youth has shaped the Dreamcatcher Aboriginal Youth Conference. The Dreamcatcher conference’s message is of self-empowerment – Dream, Learn, Achieve.
Located at MacEwan University’s City Centre Campus in Edmonton, Alberta and hosted by the Faculty of Health and Community Studies, this youth conference has grown into one of the larger conferences of its kind in Canada.
