Hmong Pleated ​Skirt

​Tiab Dawb: Cloth of Everlasting Friendship

Fabric

This pleated skirt was made in La Crosse by a Hmong woman and was given to a White resident, Betty Weeth, who assisted the Hmong in adjusting to life in La Crosse. Betty Weeth was involved in the Friendship Program and wore this skirt on many occasions including meetings with Hmong elders and at Hmong New Year celebrations. Its color and construction reveal that the wearer would be dressing as the hmoob dawb, or White Hmong dialect group.

Alyssa Spiering is from Racine, Wisconsin. She graduated spring of 2016 with a major in Archaeological Studies and a minor in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse. ​

Acrylic on Canvas

Through an investigation of photos from the 1980s Friendship Program, I found the Hmong skirt to be a symbol of deep amity and friendship as well as the fusion of cultures. It’s an object worthy of its own contemporary story cloth rendered in the permanence of a formal narrative painting.

Lisa Lenarz received her MFA from Vermont College of Visual Art with an emphasis in printmaking, installation, and Feminist art. Her work examines representations and socio-cultural narratives.