Folklore Workshop – The Wendigo

Each Tuesday afternoon workshop will centre around the myth or folklore topic of that week. The aim will be to discuss ideas surrounding that belief or narrative and to come up with a finished piece using any of the methods and materials that are available. You will have access to paper/card, printing materials (linocut, block, mono or collagraph), paints, drawing materials, 3D resources (clay, paper mache, wire, wool), paints and other bits and pieces. You will have an experienced artist to help you develop your ideas and produce your artwork.

A Wendigo is a malevolent, cannibalistic monster from the folklore of Indigenous Algonquian-speaking tribes in North America. It is traditionally described as a skeletal, emaciated figure with an insatiable hunger for human flesh, representing the ultimate dangers of starvation, greed, and the loss of humanity. The traditional stories of the Ojibwe, Cree, and other Algonquian peoples, a wendigo can originate in two main ways: Possession: A human is possessed by a malevolent wendigo spirit. Transformation: A human becomes a wendigo as punishment for greed or after being driven by starvation to commit the taboo act of cannibalism. Far from just being a horror monster, the wendigo served as a cultural cautionary tale. It embodied the community’s condemnation of selfishness, excess, and social isolation. By giving in to greed or consuming human flesh, an individual was believed to lose their humanity entirely and transform into a monster that is never satisfied, continually hunting to feed its relentless hunger.