The Hmong hill people of Laos have had a difficult history, including the use of chemical weapons (specifically, trichothecene mycotoxins) against them by the Vietnamese during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mike Daley alerts us to a happier story over at Orrin Judd's blog, however. This week at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Cy Thao will unveil "The Hmong Migration," an epic cycle of 50 oil paintings that tracks the 5,000-year Hmong journey, from the creation of the universe, to the refugee camps in Thailand where Thao spent his early childhood, to the Hmong diaspora he now represents in the Minnesota State Legislature. Visual depiction is especially meaningful in Hmong culture, which has a strong history of using visual language - literally:

"Thao continues: "In China, the emperor started encroaching on the Hmong country. The Hmong fought back. But those that did were conquered. And the emperor outlawed the Hmong language, throughout history. Thousands of years.

"So the Hmong found the way to communicate with each other was through pattern and design. They would make designs to sew on their clothes to communicate when and how we're going to attack which garrison. They would walk from village to village and communicate with everyone without the emperor and his soldiers detecting what they were saying. Throughout the ages, many people lost the meanings of those designs. But we still kept the designs on our clothes."

Orrin Judd leads with the link to the full story, and has more excerpts for you plus a link to the exhibit itself. Mike Daley's email to me called it "another story to highlight the beauty of [America]," which it is. Bittersweet beauty, but something beautiful nonetheless.