For at least a year now, I’ve been trying to find ways of doing more patchwork. (Why is this a difficult thing for me? Because I care about it, is why. Next!)
So, at the Irish Patchwork Society AGM a few weeks ago, my ears pricked up when they started talking about forthcoming exhibitions. Members can enter quilts for these exhibitions, and I had decided beforehand that I really wanted to give a few of them a whirl.
There’s usually a theme of some kind, and next year, the theme for the annual Hands Across the Border* exhibition is Dream Catcher.
* The border in question being that between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland; the quilts will be exhibited in Armagh and Dublin in 2011.
Dream Catcher
Whirr! went my brain. I started doodling on my copy of the agenda. By the lunch break, I knew what I wanted my quilt to look like.
A dream catcher, I was aware, is a Native American artefact: a circle of wood on which a cord has been laced in an intricate pattern, often incorporating beads and feathers. Its purpose is to hang above a child’s bed and filter out bad dreams. Only the good dreams get through the net.
So I thought of a quilt that would have dark colours and spiky, scary shapes around the outside, and an area of light in the centre, with a strong circle outline appliquéd on top to differentiate the two.
The image above is my initial sketch. I abandoned the idea of spiky shapes fairly quickly, because when all is said and done, I am a beginner at this. I wanted something that would be possible to piece with my beloved Singer, before I buy my swanky new sewing machine, because the deadline for this exhibition is December, and I need to get cracking.
Lots of straight lines, then. I played around with filling different areas with various arrangements of squares and rectangles. I rather liked the result. (Still do, as it happens.)
Now, how would I represent the laced cord of the dream catcher? I found some images of dream catchers, many of which use a pattern I find beautiful and satisfying: concentric rings of ever-decreasing pointed arch shapes, narrowing to a hole at the centre. I could do it simply with quilting lines, but that seemed a bit too subtle. Perhaps I could sew a narrow bias strip to the quilt top? Or couch some piping cord? That might work.
Next, how would I mark out the pattern? Tricky. I began imagining ways of drawing it using a compass, and then enlarging it to fill the allotted space. Or maybe playing with pins and string to draw it at size straight off. That could take ages and end up looking crap. I was getting frustrated just thinking about it.
Hey! What if I got a hula-hoop and actually made a dream catcher to attach to the front of my quilt? Or … wait … maybe you’re not allowed have a rigid element – I’m sure I’ve heard somewhere that the technical definition of a quilt includes flexibility.
Damn.
But! I could make it on the hula-hoop to get the shape right, stitch it down, then cut the hula-hoop away and replace it with an appliquéd circle outline.
Sorted.
So I went online again and searched for instructions.
I found a couple of step by step guides, and clicked through to an account of the origins of the dream catcher. Learned that it’s a tradition specific to the Ojibwe/Chippewa people. Read some more; learned that many consider the popularisation of dream catchers to be a form of cultural appropriation.
And came to a screeching halt.
Cultural appropriation
[If that phrase is unfamiliar, the cultural appropriation article on Wikipedia is pretty good.]
Here am I, obliviously noodling and doodling and wondering whether my dream catcher pattern would be best made out of piping cord or bias strip. And actually, I’m talking about something I know almost nothing about – something that has meaning and power to people whom my people (by which in this case I mean white Europeans) have done their damnedest to strip of all power.
I have been planning to make a quilt featuring not a dream catcher, but rather a superficial Western caricature thereof, a simulacrum, a cypher, an I Can’t Believe It’s Not A Dream Catcher.
I feel ashamed. I judge myself: I should have realised. I got caught up in the cozy bubble of middle-class white privilege (believe me, the ladies of the IPS are relatively free from oppression), which assumes an entitlement to use any aspect of any culture for its own ends, for its own amusement.
Now, it seems from what little I’ve read that many other elements of Native American culture are considerably more sacred than the dream catcher. And it should also be said that not all cultural appropriation is necessarily bad. Cultural cross-fertilisation can be very positive and fruitful. But it’s a matter of context – and mindless use of a symbol that is meaningful to the Ojibwe/Chippewa people, whose experience at the hands of my European ancestors is nothing short of obscene? Not something I’m comfortable participating in.
So now what?
I could plough ahead, on the basis that my design, if executed respectfully and mindfully, isn’t actually harmful in itself.
I could drop it. Going on past form, to be honest, the chances of my finishing this quilt in time are fairly slim. (Yes, that’s my beloved You Never Finish Anything In Time monster speaking. Wave to the nice people, dearest!)
Privileged, Web-enabled bunny that I am, I aired the problem on Twitter, and got some great responses.
Wyvernfriend wondered if there are any Irish traditions around dreams that could be pressed into service. A quick Web search revealed nothing I found credible – which perhaps says something about the relative invisibility of genuine Irish culture online.
Mollydot asked why I wanted to enter this exhibition in the first place. It’s mostly that I want something to work towards. I’ve known about this annual Hands Across the Border exhibition for several years, and I’ve been wanting to get it together and make quilts, dammit for nearly as long. So it seemed like a happy conjunction.
Bluedevi suggested that I might do something that called attention to the problem. She said “smallpox”. She said “blankets”. Which sent me off on another little flurry of reading, another little idea-storm.
So … could I, in fact, make a quilt that in some way addressed the issue? Something incorporating shapes and colours that call to mind the unspeakable horror that was the Europeans’ arrival in the Americas: the invasion of territory, the imposition of alien culture, the cruel biology of imported diseases, the tens of millions of people who died. Perhaps a broken dream catcher, unravelled and unable to keep the nightmare out.
Utterly inadequate, of course, to express the sickening reality of what happened. But then, so would be practically any other attempt to do so.
Would I be acting as an ally, if I made this quilt? Would I be calling out the people who chose this problematic theme for the exhibition? Would that be useful? Would it serve in any small way to reduce the othering, the marginalisation of Native Americans in general, and the Ojibwe/Chippewa in particular?
Or would I be just another clueless whitey trying to earn a gold star? (Yes, I assume I would – at least partly. I mean, I’m taking it as read that some part of me wants a gold star – to be certified non-racist and cuddly by an oppressed minority. Because obviously, it’s really all about me. Hooray! The question is, does my idea have merit anyway?) Would it actually be rather crass and insulting for me to craft an utterance on this subject, given how far beyond my own experience it is?
I am white in a racist society. I know beyond doubt that I have been infected by racist tropes, and I find it hard to trust myself in this arena. I want to act in solidarity with the Ojibwe/Chippewa people – or at least in a way that doesn’t compound their marginalisation – but I confess, I’m out of my depth.
What do you think?
If any Ojibwe/Chippewa or other First Nations people cared to share their opinion here, I would be delighted. It’s not your job to educate me or to be a spokesperson for your community. In the grander scheme of things, my particular situation is toe-curlingly trivial. But if you were moved to comment, I would listen carefully.
Thank you.
I’m glad you raised this!
I don’t have any answers beyond the conclusions you’ve already drawn. As it happens, I discovered the Native Appropriations blog just the other day, which you might appreciate if you don’t already know it.
Hands Across the Border does seem like a very *apt* use of a Dreamcatcher – I assume you’ve taken this into account?
I’d meant to follow up my initial question with a step two of research the issue, but got caught up in trying to catch up with twitter (still trying today – perfectionism won’t let me treat it as a bar), but you seem to have that covered.
Two thoughts. One is maybe the same as you’re already thinking – bad dreams on the outside, and all those based on the historical reality (or maybe contemporary oppression too – carictures, etc, though want to be careful there!; blank white spaces in crowds representing Indians whitewashed or ignored in pop culture) and then the inside something more positive (moving away from the cultural appropriate issue, first thing that comes to mind is holding hands across a border. Probably someone else will do that)
The other is pretty much ignore the dreamcatcher itself as a focus, and do the quilt based on the Ojibwe/Chippewa people, contemporary and/or traditional. One of the issues of cultural appropriation is that the individual cultures are melded into an amorphous blob. You’ve probably already gone further than most in the exhibition by knowing which tribes it comes from (at least a blue star for you!). Your quilt could point out the individuality.
On the gripping thought, (if that doesn’t make sense, replace with “thirdly”), from the link you posted, I saw that there are various ceremonies and required steps in making a dreamcatcher. Perhaps you could do something based on those. Again, from the point of view that they get ignored by many people who buy dreamcatchers. And perhaps contemporise it by representing the makers in eg jeans.
I think the main thing is to educate yourself as much as you can. If you can find someone knowledgeable willing to talk to you, that would be excellent.
You might find this site interesting for its main topic too: http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/
Its quite a cultural thing, I suppose, whether you see cultural appropriation as a bad or good thing. I found that piece on wikipedia about dreadlocked Italians interesting. My instinct is to be like a magpie, as I suppose western culture has taught me – to freely borrow ideas from around the world, and use them in (what I think is) a sensitive and sensible way.
Good links on the subject. Reading through them it seems that the biggest objection is the commodification of a sacred symbol/object, and in a way I can’t imagine that happening in a patchwork exhibition because of the amount of work involved – by their very nature handmade objects that take a long time to make tend to be objects that have a lot of thought behind them – and they are not made for resale.
I don’t think you neccessarily need to make a gruesome smallpox quilt to make a point about it. Perhaps just including some of the research you have done and what it meant to you is enough – I think sometimes we don’t always need to be obvious. And the fact is, you are taking the idea of a dreamcatcher and using that as a starting point for a lovingly handmade object – I think the intention is very important…
Interesting topic!
One can only hope that this particular theme title elicited half as much pondering about cultural appropriation amongst other quilters
I also wonder whether part of the problem with finding time to do more patchwork is making “doing patchwork” into a Big Important Thing (TM). In my own experience, which may be totally irrelevant and can be ignored, not thinking about the end product and just doing patchwork has resulted in an actual finished quilt. Once you get pieces of fabric sewn together and spread out on the floor, there is tremendous inspiration to turn them into something that can actually be used.
Clearly, I have no thoughts on the primary question. But if you fell down this rabbit hole on the way to making a quilt, you could climb out and make a different quilt. I suspect you could even enter that quilt in the show whether it related to the theme or not.
[...] String Revolution has an ethical dilemma that involves cultural appropriation [...]
Hi Lean,
I love your sketch. I hope you make it.
Why on earth are some Irish women working with the Dreamcatcher of the Ojibwa tradition as a motif? It is totally random.
Can’t you just approach the project as catching your own dreams? Making your own object as a way to participate and claim your corner of creation? This has as much to do with the dreamcatcher as an object as anything. Keeping the good stuff in and the bad stuff out.
Does it need to be any more than that? I think that to try to make it anything more would never ring true. What is true is your desire to be there.
And as I said, your design is totally worthy. Make it and let others experience it as they will.
Thank you all for taking the time to write these brilliant, useful comments!
@Nine: That’s an interesting blog – thanks, I hadn’t seen it.
@Ailbhe: I know … I thought about that, but then realised I was still queasy about plonking a poorly understood artefact from another culture on top of that can of worms.
@Mollydot: Wow, cool suggestions! Unfortunately, my skills just won’t stretch to them. (Yet. Give me time.) And that blog is fascinating – thanks for the link.
@Caro: To an extent, I think every artist is a magpie. And of course, there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by other cultures. But yes, as you say, intention and awareness are very important. I’m coming to the conclusion that speaking – and risking offence – is preferable to silence. Eek!
@JoVE: Oh, yes, I (and my monsters) know ALLLLL about turning stuff I want to do into a Big Important Thing (TM) so that I don’t do it. I’m eroding that particular mountain one peck at a time
@Jenny: Thank you for your support
It does seem pretty random, doesn’t it? I don’t know what process they go through to choose the theme each year: I imagine a committee brainstorming or submitting suggestions, then discussing and picking the one that seems most exciting. I sincerely doubt that the organisers are particularly au fait with the details of the dream catcher tradition.
The dream snare BELONGS to the culture that created it. You don’t understand its meaning, therefore you can only create an offensive caricature of it. The dream snare is one of the most commodified artifacts of Ojibwe culture. It always enrages me when nons think they have a right to take whatever they want from our culture without ever looking within their own cultures. The rhetoric used to justify cultural theft is an additional violation. This is cultural rape. It’s wrong. STOP IT!
Dear Priscilla,
Thank you for your comment.
I can hear your anger, outrage, and frustration at this clueless woman, sitting far away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and considering how best to steal from your culture, about which she knows nothing.
Please believe that I do not assume any entitlement whatsoever to perpetrate cultural appropriation. I too am often frustrated by the gross caricatures of Irish culture that are routinely tossed around in more dominant societies like the US and the UK. I feel ashamed that I ever thought of doing something similar to another culture.
I posted a few days after this post, saying that I was going to try to make a quilt that would express something about the problematic nature of the exhibition theme, and that I was planning to include a representation of a dream catcher in my quilt.
However, having read your comment and thought about it some more, I will be modifying my design to omit that representation.
Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective with me, and for being so clear.
With great respect,
Léan
Thank you for posting all your process and actually thinking about the concept of cultural appropriation, Lean. You have gone further than most people do in this area.
Caroline (perhaps Caro above?) posted a link to this blog entry on my blog entry about Cultural Competency ( http://judithornot.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/cultural-competency/ ). I think the most we can do is keep trying and to be aware. I think deciding not to include the dream catcher in your quilt design was a good choice.
I hope you enjoyed the making of it!