Abstract
This qualitative study explored the challenges and possibilities of sustaining HMong language and culture in the United States by centering the lived experiences of HMong cultural bearers and practitioners. Grounded in a decolonial framework, it examined how colonial legacies have contributed to cultural deprivation and disrupted intergenerational transmission of HMong language and knowledge. Using portraiture methodology, the study illuminated the lifelong practices, strategies, and commitments in which HMong practitioners engage to reclaim, sustain, and carry forward their language and culture in the face of assimilationist pressures. Drawing from culturally sustaining and revitalizing pedagogy (CSRP) and HMong epistemology, the study proposes a critical framework for advancing sustainability. Rather than relying on institutional reform, this framework uplifts community-driven approaches to language and cultural education grounded in the concept of cultural security (Allender & Allender-West, 2024), which is sustained through the rituals of Indigeneity, Ancestry, Mindfulness, and Relationship. This framework offers a model for sustaining HMong language and culture that honors those who have long carried this work forward in both formal and informal educational spaces.