A campaign to cultivate unity.
Pictured above: Kristi Moya & Sophia Rose Peso.
In the cañon between dreams and peril, there is tangible faith. A basket is tangible faith, an icon of devotion. The weaver imagines her basket, gathers the materials; and as her hands work she sings: to the plants gathered, to the shape that emerges, to the use that will nurture her people. WOMEN WEAVE THE WORLD is our basket. It is reverence, respect, and unity—interwoven.
This campaign supports women cultural makers and leaders. It is designed as a popup, flash gallery exhibit. Inspired by a historic collection of baskets, woven over centuries by Apache women, the baskets are symbolic of the vitality and leadership women bring to their communities.
The keeper of the baskets, Sophia Rose Peso, lives on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Over decades, she with her husband Frederick, an artist, sought and were given these baskets to keep traditions intact. Together they raised over 30 children: their own, through adoption, and fosters. They dedicated their lives to preserve Apache tribal culture.
The visionary of WOMEN WEAVE THE WORLD is Kristi Moya, a tribal member of the Chiricahua Apache Nation. She came into Sophia’s life through her son, a wild land firefighter on the Mescalero Hot Shot crew who was killed.
The idea of gifting Kamala Harris with a BLESSING BASKET woven with the names of those who want to express their unity and resilience, came from Shan Goshurn's, “Resisting the Mission; Filling the Silence,” a set of baskets commemorating Native American Indian children, who were sent to Carlisle Boarding School. And also from the Apache tribe's ceremony, called the Na ii ees, when a girl becomes a woman. N’de (the people) honor the maiden who will carry the weight of the tribe's future on her shoulders. Her specially woven ceremonial basket is filled with items that the people place in her basket, and will be blessed during the four-day ceremony. The blessed items are then returned, and kept as a reminder of the blessing. We will collect names online and at the pop up flash exhibits, and print them on splints, thin strips of hemp fiber. The name splints will be woven into a basket by fiber artist Delia deVer.
The BLESSING BASKET will be gifted to Kamala, when she occupies the Oval Office.
In tandem with Kristi in this endeavor are her SÜÜS STUDIOS crew and friends: Ariel Dougherty, Jia Apple, Judy Reagan, Delia deVer, Jeanne Callahan, Barbara Bennett, and Pete Padilla.
The Basket Weaver, Delia deVer, is a cocktail of Indigenous, European, and Eastern cultures, all within me. Each of us carry our ancestors’ songs. She feels honored to be chosen to weave this basket of unity.
This campaign is sponsored by SÜÜS STUDIOS, which is developing a narrative DREAM TRILOGY: Three cultures, three families, in three feature films, weave a legendary tale of love, food, and dreams set against the never-ending fight for land and water in the American Southwest.
The BLESSING BASKET is our tangible faith.
