I am a Karen immigrant from Thailand. I left a Thai refugee camp to come to the U.S.A. in August 2015. In my landscape you can see my house is close to my neighbor’s house and close to the river. I had a garden and everyday my father worked in the garden growing vegetables and fruit. In my village, some people raised ducks, chickens, and cows in their farm. Some people liked to fish and some people went to hunt in the forest. Our village had a river, trees, banana trees, coconut trees and plants full of different kinds of flowers. When I looked at the sky I could see the clear blue sky and the clouds move slowly in the sky. In the summer, the weather was warm and all the places were full of sunshine and fresh air. There were mountains and trees around our village and I always heard the birds making different sounds. In my landscape you can see a person fishing. She is wearing traditional Karen clothes. Karen traditional clothes are important to my identity and my culture. I brought them to the U.S.A. In my culture, ancient Karen people weaved cloth and made white, black and red dresses. Today Karen people have many different colors for their clothes. In the U.S.A. Karen people wear their Karen clothes for Karen New Year and Karen Memorial Day. Karen clothes are important to my identity because they are beautiful and have dignity, and when we wear Karen clothes, everyone knows we are Karen and they respect our culture. I am very proud of my traditional clothes and of my Karen culture.

– LEAP High School Student

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant