Hmong textile art exhibited

Missoula, Montana

Thursday night, Missoula resident Helen Cappadocia gave a talk about her collection of more than 600 brilliantly colored textile pieces from the Hmong culture, 74 of which are on display until Saturday at the Montana Museum of Art and Culture.

The Helen Cappadocia Collection of Southeast Asian Textiles showcases traditional and ceremonial dress and other textile items including wedding outfits, skirts, prayer shawls, an elephant head cloth, a money vest, hats and a Buddhist temple banner woven out of cotton and bamboo.

I thought that if these pieces were dispersed that the culture would be lost, said Cappadocia, a former Chicago gallery owner and one of the first female licensed contractors in Montana.

She began collecting the intricate weavings in 1989 in the midst of political unrest in Laos in an effort to help preserve their culture.

Cappadocia said she included textiles from Thailand, Burma and Laos to show the variety of people that the Hmong lived amongst.

We think largely in terms of the nation-state, but many cultures are not as involved in that as we are, Cappadocia said.

The contemporary Hmong pieces are called story cloths. They tell stories of important features of Hmong history in stitched pictures and words. The four story cloths on display depict the Hmong migration south from China, the Vietnam War, relocation in Missoula and the Hmong New Year celebration.

The Hmong sided with the West in the Vietnam War following recruitment by the American CIA. One of the story cloths depicts Hmong soldiers rescuing American pilots whose plane had been shot down, leading to their captivity in Vietnamese POW camps, Cappadocia explained.

After the war ended, many Hmong fled the area and this is what brought some of the Hmong to the United States and Missoula.

Manuela Well-Off-Man, curator of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, said that the Hmong are known for their work ethic and that there are several Hmong in Missoula who sell fruit and vegetables at the Saturday farmer’s market.

Well-Off-Man estimates that the oldest piece on display dates from around 1910. Most of the items in the exhibit were used in everyday life.

Some of the pieces on display reflect the ancient Hmong spiritual leanings towards Buddhism and animism. Animism is a religious belief whereby spirits and souls exist in nature in plants and animals.

The goal of the woman was to create something that dazzles the eye and also has spiritual meaning, Well-Off-Man said.

The exhibit will be on display through Oct. 25.

amanda.eggert@umontana.edu