Thoughts About Dreamwork with Central Alberta Cree
B. Dreams and Homework Assignments
The most fruitful way that I have worked with dreams with Natives in the classroom via assignments. In conjunction with a section on dreams I might ask the class members to write out a dream and hand it in to me. They are always given the opportunity to not have me read it. But usually they are eager for me to read the dream and comment on it. They are extremely unlikely to share a dream in an open classroom setting whereas high self disclosure was forthcoming within the privacy of the homework assignment. About such discloses in class a student wrote me:
My overall feeling is one of apprehension. I feel the connection between dreams and visions, sacredness/divine all are very close together therefore the classroom atmosphere does not allow for the sensitivity/trust/confidentiality that is needed.
I have found that Natives are equally willing to share dream and/or autobiographical information with me and at times both are at a fairly deep level of self-disclosure. At this point I have probably read about 500 dreams/autobiographical assignments with 1/2 to 2/3 dreams. For instance, a young woman who had just learned that the father of her first born had cancer wrote:
During this lecture I was uncomfortable, because it's close to what I am going through with Ken's disease. I kept trying to say that maybe he wasn't dying. That maybe he said that because he was drinking. I hate thinking about it, but its always there. I'm in denial, and rage, and anger at the same time. Because he's the father of my oldest son. I have also heard from others that he is beginning to look really sick.
And this from a victim of sexual abuse:
The lecture on sexual abuse as well as John Bradshaw's film were both very disturbing for me because as a child I was sexually abused for a period of 9 years from the time I was eight until I was 17 years old. I am currently in counseling and I just found the film very 'enlightening' because it showed me or made me think about all the other people who have been abused and I didn't feel quite so alone.
And this from a victim of violence:
We had been drinking and he became violent and beat me up. I waited till he fell asleep and I picked up my son and left him. I had a sister in Grande Prairie, so that's where I went.
Such tales of horror and fear also come out in their dreams. A Native woman writes of a memorable dream:
I got separated from my two girls and my husband. The people were gathered in a dome-like room and everybody was scared and I kept thinking about my girls and my husband. There was no electricity and no one was allowed to go outside of the dome. There were many people injured and many that were dead. Many of the people were burnt up and looked horrible. I didn't get the chance to find my girls because I would wake up.
A Native man writes about a dream he had just before he found out about the death of his best friend:
We took off at a gallop down the trail, as my horse was running I was ducking branches. "Art watch out" I heard. I turned around to look and I felt my horse paw the air I felt myself falling and when I looked up I saw my friend's face looking down at me smiling and waving bye. It was a long drop and I could see the tops of the Spruce trees where I was going to hit. I could feel the wind on my face and hear the crack of the branches as I hit. I recall clutching at the trees to try and slow my fall down I saw myself hit bottom and bounce off the ground laying there bleeding all cut up from the fall.
It is interesting, and sad, how quickly I came to almost "expect" such horror stories from my Native students. This was driven home to me at a workshop I was facilitating on dreams in a nearby community. There was only one Native woman in the group. After each nonnative participant had processed a dream using Ullman's group technique (Ullman & Zimmerman, 1979) the Native woman who had largely been quiet told us her story. It was filled with violence, incest, drink, and the other ingredients of Native childhood I had come to "expect". I did not realize what my mind set had become until I looked at the faces of the other women in the group (all mental health workers) which showed their horror at this Native womans story. Only then did I realize how deeply immersed I had become in the stories of pain among my Native students and friends. Although I try to not become insensitive to these tales I realized also that to react too strongly to such a tale is to cut off the teller. A certain nonjudgmental acceptance of the brutality is expected if self-disclosure is to proceed with either autobiographical or dream material.
Interestingly Natives are not nearly as interested in my feedback on their autobiographical stories as they are in my feedback about their dreams. In fact, my impression is that it seems to be an infringement on their privacy to say much about their life stories but a betrayal of trust to NOT say anything about their dreams.
Go to: Teacher: (C). Dreamwork in the Classroom
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