Roxanne C. Henry Laducer starts every project with a prayer.
“I give thanks for my creativity,” she says, and asks that whatever she makes reflects the unconditional love of the Great Spirit, Gitchi Manitou.
Originally from the Turtle Mountains and now living in Rolette, North Dakota, Laducer is an Anishinaabe artist and 2025 Midwest Culture Bearer awardee. She creates dreamcatchers, symbols of spiritual protection designed to snare negative energies. “To me, it’s a spiritual symbol of great love,” she says. “The web represents that we’re all interconnected, the whole universe, through unconditional love, in my experience.”
Laducer is a member of the Bear Clan within the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “Bears are considered guardians of the dreamtime,” she says. “The Bear Clan were healers: mind, body, soul, spirit.”
She made her first dreamcatchers years ago, when a visiting cousin taught the whole family. Her early dreamcatchers were often made with metal rings. She returned to the practice about 10 years ago, and with the loss of her mother in 2020, Laducer’s approach to dreamcatchers began to change.
“That’s when I started using red willow, which is what we [Anishinaabe] originally used,” says Laducer. “It really helped me heal from losing my mom. It brought a peace to me that I never had before.”
When making a dreamcatcher, Laducer says intent is key: “I don’t get frustrated anymore, but before, when I would, I would stop working,” she says. “It’s all intent, good happy thoughts going into them. I concentrate on that when I make them.”
She has shaped dreamcatchers into butterflies, dragonflies, cocoons, flowers, and each of the Seven Grandfather Teachings: the eagle for love, bear for courage, turtle for truth, beaver for wisdom, sa’be (sometimes translated “Bigfoot”) for honesty, wolf for humility, and buffalo for respect.
“That’s what being Anishinaabe is,” says Laducer. “It’s a way of living with those seven principles, leading us in all that we do.”
Reconnecting with dreamcatchers encouraged Laducer to learn more about other forms of Anishinaabe art and medicine. Her other creations include beautiful designs made of pheasant feathers, a wall vase, and a pair of nunchucks.
“I do throw nunchucks and put the Red Hand on them,” she says.
Laducer teaches workshops at schools, her local heritage center, and Arts for Vets in Grand Forks. Her students come from a range of Native and non-Native backgrounds. Along with being an artist, teacher, and culture bearer, Laducer is a devoted grandmother who quotes SpongeBob—“Use your imagination!”—to encourage others’ creativity, and her own.
“I love being able to say that I’m a culture bearer,” says Laducer. “That’s a very, very big honor, and I don’t take it lightly. I teach it. It’s a part of our culture and heritage I’m able to pass on. I’m very, very grateful for that, for Gitchi Manitou using me to pass on that unconditional love.”
“‘Everything with love’ is one of my sayings,” she continues. “It’s not easy at times. If nothing else, I have to remind myself how much I love myself. How can we give what we don’t have for ourselves?”