In Hmong Reverse Appliqué, Linda Gerdner brings together two of her passions: celebrating textile art and valuing the contributions of community elders. Gerdner discovered reverse appliqué when she moved to the Twin Cities after finishing her doctorate in nursing, which focused on chronic illness and dementia in elderly patients. Minneapolis and St. Paul are home to one of the highest concentrations of Hmong Americans in the U.S., many of whom emigrated in the wake of the Vietnam War, and Gerdner found herself connecting with the community and discovering their traditions.

In the book, Gerdner recounts one woman’s story of learning to create reverse appliqué designs:

At a very early age, her mother began teaching her basic sewing skills, including straight stitch and chain stitch. An agrarian lifestyle required long hours of physical labor. Sy explained that sewing was done during excessively hot weather when villagers were forced to take a break from field work, or in the evening following a laborious day in the fields…

Along with listening to the artisans’ stories of the experiences that shaped their craft, Gerdner learned to interpret the meanings of the abstract designs. She admits that reverse appliqué, with its subtle motifs, did not immediately grab her interest. “I had a tremendous respect for their skills in needlework, but initially the patterns did not resonate with me. Then I obtained a few, and I started learning more about them,” she says. “I didn’t understand in the beginning the importance of these textile arts, but I do now.” Many of the textiles Gerdner has collected, along with others owned by their creators, appear in detailed and eye-catching photos in the book, which Kirkus Reviews calls “an enlightening look at vibrant designs and their place in Hmong traditions.”

Her growing appreciation for reverse appliqué led Gerdner to strengthen her connections to Minnesota’s Hmong community. At an annual local market, she says, “the elder Hmong women at that time would have their wares for sale. They knew me. When they would see me coming, they might pull out a piece of textile art they thought I might be interested in.” Her bond with these women was enhanced by her professional interest in the lives of elders, and she recorded their stories, many of which appear in the book.

Her community connections also offered her the opportunity to learn about Hmong culture outside of the United States. In the early 2000s, Gerdner traveled to Laos with a Hmong American friend. One of the first things she noticed was how deeply the country was still affected by the Vietnam War, decades after its conclusion. “We stayed at a hotel that actually had some paraphernalia from the war. It had a soldier’s helmet, and it had—I kid you not—a grenade. I assume that grenade was deactivated. It must have been,” she says.

The trip was enlightening for Gerdner in many ways. “I really didn’t know much about the Hmong people at that time, or the war. [I saw] everything through new eyes,” she says. With her friend, she traveled to several rural villages and also visited a refugee settlement. “That was an amazing experience,” Gerdner relates. “Through that experience, I became determined to learn more about the Hmong people and what the elders who were living in the United States had experienced during the war.”

Gerdner sees her book as a tool for sharing those experiences with a wider audience, both Hmong and non-Hmong, as the textile art has been created primarily by older generations with many of the creators no longer alive to tell their stories. “I wanted to share that with the greater population that was interested, not only those who were non-Hmong but also the younger Hmong who had not grown up in Laos, had not lived through the war, had not grown up in refugee camps,” she says. And she adds that gathering the elders’ stories was a collective effort. “It’s not like I did this in isolation. I went out and talked to people and learned absolutely as much as I could.”

Younger readers also lack the elders’ experiences of living through the Vietnam War, another thread that runs through Hmong Reverse Appliqué. “I wanted very much to write this book in honor of the Hmong Americans who served during the Vietnam War,” Gerdner says, explaining that the book explores how the war brought changes to a traditional art form. She adds that the stories that appear in the book, placing the artworks into their historical and cultural context, are “helping those of us who have not experienced war or were not in the Vietnam War understand what life was like for these people.”

“The one thing that is extremely important about writing a book is that you have to be very dedicated and passionate about the topic,” Gerdner says. “History is an area of strong interest to me, and culture and art have always been of interest, ever since I was a child.” Her nursing studies included a concentration in anthropology, and she has always seen her work, both as a nurse and as a writer, as extending cultural bridges and promoting knowledge sharing.

Her passion for the artworks presented in the book is evident when she describes one of her favorite pieces that features a tiger’s face. “I bought that directly from the creator. I asked her what had inspired her to create that textile art, and she told me…As a little girl, she and her aunt had been out in the fields working. When the sun started to go down, they headed back to the Hmong village. She asked her auntie, ‘What is that striped cow doing out at this hour of the night?’ She had been close enough, she told me, that she could look the tiger directly in the eyes.” Gerdner concludes, “This is a piece of art. It truly is a piece of art.”

Sarah Rettger is a writer and bookseller in Massachusetts.