Hmong resilience: 50 years from refugee camps to state legislatures — turning trauma into triumph | 3HBC

After the trauma of the Secret War in Laos, Hmong women in refugee camps began stitching their history onto cloth. This traditional art, called paj ndao or flower cloth, had been used for generations to record traditions and cultural identity, passed from mother to daughter. In the late 1970s in Thailand, the art took on a new purpose as women created story cloths that depicted their escape from Laos, the dangerous crossing of the Mekong River, and their life in the camps. These textiles became