The title of this work, “Onus keeper”, is a synonym play on “burden basket” or the functional and ceremonial baskets woven by Apache, Diné and many other Indigenous people. With every mounting layer I wove of this form, I was also writing letters to relevant tribal offices in New Mexico to learn more about family members based on information from my late grandfather. This sculpture was a way of creating a psychological vessel to carry the burden of these unknowns. “Her first step is to take inventory. Despojando, desgranando, quitando paja. Just what did she inherit from her ancestors? This weight on her back — which is the baggage from the Indian mother, which [is] the baggage from the Spanish father, which [is] the baggage from the Anglo? Pero es dificil differentiating between lo heredado, lo adquirido, lo impuesto.” Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza Photos by Jenny Gorman and courtesy @hesse_flatow