Paper short abstract:

Hmong embroidered crafts provide a means by which to examine the nature of what it is to be Hmong and Hmong American while offering an opportunity to better understand the nature of multiple ontological expressions and matters of entanglement.

Paper long abstract:

Since their arrival in the US beginning in the 1970s, the Hmong of Highland Laos have continued to produce stunning embroidery works that capture the essence of what it is to be Hmong and Hmong American. The embroidered cloths and the traditional nature of the craft stand as a nexus of the people and places that refine the contours of Hmong life, craft, and art, and in doing so connect individuals to shared pasts and a communal present. Moreover, within these delicately embroidered works the complexities of Hmong communities, culture, and ontological interpretations unfold to reveal pronounced issues of gender, personhood, ethnicity, and the dynamic essences of Hmong spiritual life. Furthermore, those engaged in the production of the craft are positioned as stewards of these diverse images and elements while also propagating future projections of Hmong needlework and art as traditional Hmong craftwork.

Drawing from my fieldwork and extensive time with the Denver, CO Hmong community, this paper seeks to explore the connections between various Hmong ontological perspectives, namely those of traditional animism and Christianity, personhood, identity, and Hmong embroidery as it is situated in a contemporary Hmong American experience. Furthermore, this paper wishes to question matters of entanglement and the phenomenological characteristics which culminate through individuals entwining their own perspectives and experiences with those represented through the embroidered works of the Hmong so that we may better scrutinise how the nature of the object, its haecceity, comes to be present and understood through the process of craft and presentation.