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• What is your personal definition of home? What experiences have influenced/continue to influence and shape your understanding of home, belonging, and safety?

Comfort and familiarity has been a big factor in shaping my understanding of home, belonging, and safety. Growing up home, belonging, and safety meant pungent smells of herbal medicine for aches, falling asleep in fetal position on grandma’s lap cradled in her junh after a bath, home cooked meals after school (that I always counted as my lunch so I could have a second dinner later) and enjoying the taste of soft day old cold rice with some freshly cooked veggies. Those are some memories that made home, home for me and gave me comfort, belonging, and safety. As I’ve been learning to grow into my own person I’ve learned that home doesn’t have to be one entity. Home doesn’t always have to be physical either. Comfort is still something I look for in a home; however familiarity isn’t always something that I can find, but that doesn’t mean I can’t foster it into existence.

• What parts of your personal/family/collective histories help you feel grounded in (or disconnected to) your idea and understanding of home? When/if you feel disconnected to your cultural community, where do you go and/or what do you do to feel safe and accepted? 

Being able to reflect on my family’s journey as refugees has made me realize how much of a luxury “home” is. I can’t imagine what they understood as home during those times, or if they even had the chance to think of what home meant to them. Through my grandparents I’ve learned that Home is not constant, home changes, and although I do feel most at home in my mind, at the end of the day I’m thankful that I have multiple places I’m able to call home. When I feel disconnected from my cultural community, oftentimes I connect through learning more. Google is a great resource, and I love looking for music, folk tales, stories, and more about my cultural community. I also ask my grandparents a lot of questions, and I always enjoy helping Goux and Mommy make food.

• What aspects of your identity do you feel most connected to? What parts feel the most challenging to feel connected to and how does this impact your understanding of home and belonging?

I feel the most connected to my inner child. I think that’s a big reason why I’m so attached to nostalgia, and I tend to find home through comfort and familiarity, because It reminds me of when I was a child, when safety, belonging, and comfort didn’t have to be as complex as it is now.

• Time isn’t linear–spiritually speaking, we carry our ancestors and descendants with us everyday. How do you hope to contribute to the healing, growth, and transformation of your people’s collective understanding of home, place, and belonging? Through your art, how do you hope to help your ancestors and descendants find home and feel + know safety?

I hope that through my art, the idea of home can be reimagined for each and every person. Everyone’s home, and idea of home is different. For those who ever feel as though they don’t have any place, belonging, and/or home at any time in their life, imagine what you want your home to be— home can be in your heart, home can be in your mind, home can be in your dreams.

• What role does art/creativity play in your life? Is this connected to your journey of belonging? If yes, how?

Art/creativity is therapeutic for me. It’s a way that I’ve been able to connect, and just sit with my own self. I would say this is connected to my journey of belonging, as cliche as this answer is, I never really saw Khmu + Iu Mien illustrations growing up, so a lot of my younger illustrations were a reflection of myself. 

• What is one dream you have for your community? 

I dream that we will have our basic needs met, and that we are able to connect and love each other as humans with empathy, compassion, and understanding. 

• How has this project influenced your understanding of community, belonging, home and/or safety?

I would say this project has helped me gain clarity of what community, belonging, home and/or safety means for me. And that means that all of those things don’t have to look or be a certain way. 

• Is there anything on your horizon or forthcoming for you as an artist/storyteller?

One of my longtime dreams is to illustrate children’s story books of Khmu + Iu Mien folk tales, and I would love to eventually make an anthology of Khmu + Iu Mien scary stories to tell in the dark. I love spooky things. 

• How can people learn more about you and keep up with your work?

Follow my art account on Instagram @bambooshewts and/or follow my etsy shop: etsy.com/shop/byBambooShewts