Iweš-‘iweš kečkeyma: One Hundred Women

Join us for the opening ceremony of The Betti Ono Foundation's Artist in Residence, Inés Ixierda's, debut exhibit Iweš-‘iweš kečkeyma: One Hundred Women!

This art is an ancestral reckoning.

Iweš-‘iweš kečkeyma: One Hundred Women; A legacy of Indigenous resistance and resilience shares the a story of the land we are on through an offering of 100 hand made ribbon skirts created in honor of the first 100 Indigenous women and girls that were taken into the Bay Area Missions in the first wave of colonization.

Working with more than 40 Indigenous artists, Lisjan Nation, Sogorea Te' Land Trust, and The Betti Ono Foundation, and Artist in Residence Inés Ixierda, have worked together over the last year to explore these histories through workshops, regenerating and sharing cultural knowledge while creating a beautiful tribute to the ancestors of the land we are on.

The exhibit will run from September 18 - October 13th, 2025 at Faultline Gallery in Oakland with an opening reception on September 18th from 6-9 pm including a panel with:

Lisjan Nation Tribal Chairwoman Corrina Gould

Culture Keeper Bernadette Smith

Artist in Residence Inés Ixierda

The Betti Ono Foundation

We hope to see you there!

More about the project:

When early colonizers came to the area now known as the San Francisco Bay Area, they imprisoned thousands of Ohlone people into forced labor in Catholic Missions. Centuries later, the living descendants of those Ohlone People and members of an urban Indigenous, inter-tribal women-led Land Trust came across a database of Mission System records that included the names of the women and children that were first taken. Together, we began dreaming of a way to honor these ancestors and their story.

This project is an honoring. We invited Lisjan Nation, California Indian people, Indigenouscultural artists, and Intertribal people in the Bay Area to create 100 ribbon skirts for the first 100 women and girls that were taken into the Mission San Francisco and Mission San Jose, where Ohlone people were held.

We uplift and honor the name of these women and girls because female identified Indigenous people still face massively disproportionate violence stemming from this legacy of patriarchy and colonization. We chose ribbon skirts to represent the women and girls in connection with the urban Indigenous community that we now live in and the Intertribal tradition of wearing long skirts decorated with ribbons as a representation of cultural heritage and pride.

Host or Publisher BETTI ONO