Feminists have consistently engaged with ontological and epistemological issues about what counts as knowledge, based on whose worldview, and what knowledge and worldviews remain unrecognised or ignored. Utilising Mexicana and Chicana fictional and conceptual writings and public art installations on the Juárez feminicides, the article focuses on the ontological, epistemological and pedagogical significance of "collective memory". From the mid-twentieth century Mexican feminist playwright Elena Garro and the contemporary work of Chicana feminist Alicia Gaspar de Alba, I examine the legacy of collective memory that underlies Mexicana and Chicana feminist conceptualisation of gender violence. In doing so, the article first draws attention to the ontological significance of collective memory to contemporary understanding of the feminicides; then discusses how knowledge is inscribed on the female brown body; and ends with the notion that decolonial feminist public pedagogies are one way of educating about and disrupting dominant discourses about the feminicides and other issues.