Tram Colwin was only 5 years old when her family’s house outside of Saigon was torn down by the Vietnamese government in an attempt to seize their land. 

Thirty years later, she still remembers the day vividly.

“My mom and I were just coming back from the market, and I remember being really excited because my mom had gotten me a dress,” she recalled. She was sitting in her room with her new outfit when her mother rushed in, picking her up and carrying her out the door as bulldozers began to descend on the house.

“My mom pulled me out right before they started,” she said, adding that she felt shocked and confused as she watched her house being torn down by her countrymen.

For almost a year, her family lived under a temporary shelter erected from the debris. Safety concerns surrounding the growing tensions between her parents — both U.S. allies during the Vietnam War — and the government finally pushed them to leave in 1996. 

Colwin, a local artist, showcases her experience, and those of other immigrants living in Northwest Arkansas, in a passion project entitled, “What We Carry: A Visual Narrative of a People Displaced, In Search of Belonging.”

This exhibit is currently on display at 8th Street Market until Sept. 29 before moving on to Fayetteville Public Library Oct. 6 to Dec. 26, with an opening reception Q&A Oct. 30.

“What We Carry” is a mix of Colwin’s watercolor paintings and video interviews created in collaboration with Stephen Ironside of Iron Lotus Creative. 

Coming to Fruition

For Colwin, the project has been over five years in the making, inspired by her experiences as a refugee and then as a Vietnamese-American teetering on the edge of both cultures — never feeling as if she fully belongs to one or the other. 

“This is the first project where I feel like I’m making a little bit of a stand, which is kind of scary for me,” she said.“It does require me to be in a much more visible place than I used to be, especially sharing about what my thoughts and feelings are in what can be a very political topic.”

She was able to bring the project to fruition after receiving a grant from Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, with funding from the Walton Family Foundation.

Partnering with Canopy NWA, a nonprofit organization that supports refugees through resettlement assistance, the collection spotlights the experiences of immigrants from 10 different countries. 

It highlights the events that brought them to Northwest Arkansas, and what they brought with them, such as the story of Tuka, who’s brother was killed after their home was bombed in 2013 during the Syrian civil war. 

Her family fled to Lebanon, where they were able to apply for refugee status for resettlement. It took eight years before they were accepted to come to the U.S. in 2021. Tuka brought her Qur’an and her brother’s prayer rug. 

And Mursal, a refugee from Afghanistan, fled her country after the government fell to the Taliban in 2021. Mursal brought a hijab given to her by her mother, as well as jewelry she was wearing the day she left Afghanistan. 

These objects, immortalized in Colwin’s paintings, seem simple on canvas, but hold such significance to their owners, tying them to the story of their homeland.

What she hopes to accomplish with this project is twofold.

“For my participants themselves, I want them to realize that their stories matter, that they are an important part of this community,” she said. 

She hopes the exhibit will help people understand the trauma some refugees have faced, and the uphill battle to learning a new language and adapting to a culture that isn’t their own. She wants to inspire people to help immigrants feel like they belong. 

“They want to start a new life, and I think that we could play a part in that,” she said. “And eventually, these are the people that will shape the culture of Northwest Arkansas.”