Description:
Based on Nui Wilson’s decades of volunteer work with Karen refugee families in Portland, Oregon, A Tree of My Own follows the journey of Posada, a young Karen girl, and her family from Burma to a refugee camp in Thailand, and finally to Portland where they make their new home.
Karen refers to a variety of peoples living in Burma and Thailand. Some live in mountains and remote rural areas, some along the coasts and river deltas, and others in towns and cities. Karens are diverse in language, culture, religious belief, life experience, and integration with neighboring groups.
Karen communities in Burma have endured decades of armed conflict, both with the central government and between their own factions. Since the end of World War II, millions of Karens have faced hardships of war: displacement, hunger, separation of families, injury, and and often a daily struggle to survive. These dire circumstances create both an existential threat to Karen people overall and a lifelong challenge for nearly every individual Karen person: Surviving the world while maintaining the integrity of their Karen identity.
Karen refugees began settling in camps along the Thailand-Burma border in the early 1980s. Their numbers grew steadily over time. As the camps grew, armed conflict inched closer to the border, and finally spilled over. By the mid-1990s, Karen refugee camps in Thailand were coming under attack from cross-border violence and internal strife.
Facing insecurity, statelessness, and lack of opportunity, many Karen refugees sought to build new lives elsewhere. Some received asylum and were resettled in the west. Today, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the United States all have vibrant overseas Karen communities.
Nui Wilson is a Karen woman born and raised in western Thailand. She studied law and psychology at Chiang Mai University, and moved to the United States in 2007. Seeing that many Karen refugees from Burma were coming to America, Nui volunteered to help with their transition and resettlement. She has worked with the Karen community in Utah, Oregon, and Thailand for almost 20 years.
Join Nui for a reading from A Tree of My Own, and a discussion on the lives and aspirations of Karen refugees.
Nui Wilson currently lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children. A Tree of My Own is her first book in a series featuring the lived experiences of Karen communities.
COST: 350 THB
