Sharing Souls

By Laura Huskey

Laura Huskey is a Choctaw artist and storyteller who believes that language and art are the foundations of keeping our cultures alive for future generations. Weaving the stories and symbols of her heritage into her work, she hopes for Indigenous audiences to continue seeing themselves represented more in every genre. Her works primarily cover themes of redemption, friendship, and finding belonging. You can find her at @lautaloa on Instagram.

Sharing lands goes beyond welcoming each other into our homes, it goes into sharing our stories, our cultures, and our dreams with each other. For me and many others, our dream is simply to grow in our connection with the world and the people around us. Simply put, we all desire friendship. But what is friendship? Many have their own unique definitions. A friend should be someone who is always there to support you but never criticize you. A friend should be someone who is good at listening. A friend should be someone who will go with you to try new things.

I have a simple way to define friendship: a friend is anyone I have ever shared a laugh with. This definition may be too broad for many, but I believe life is too short to be selective in who you appreciate. We all have a value to each other’s lives. Unfortunately, friendship is often not a realistic thing to ask of so many people. It’s a blessing, then, that friendship is grown from two core ingredients: these are mutual respect and understanding. All healthy communities will thrive so long as they hold respect and understanding for each other (even if they don’t necessarily like each other!)

Friendship is grown from two core ingredients: these are mutual respect and understanding.

For the Choctaw and Irish communities, our stories became intertwined through a thread of generosity during a time of sorrow. Both our peoples knew what it was like to suffer at the hands of colonialism. These experiences opened their hearts to each other’s lives and stories. This connection flourished through the years, creating new friendships even today. From that small seed of kindness, all our lives changed for the better. Friendship is simple like that.

For the Choctaw and Irish communities, our stories became intertwined through a thread of generosity during a time of sorrow.

Growing up, day to day friendships didn’t come along to many of us as easily as they did for our peers. In my case, I was shy, and many of my peers didn’t have much patience to get to know me past that. Adolescence was difficult without strong friends to rely on, but as I grew older, more friendships appeared from places I would never expect. These friendships grew and flourished into relationships I would consider familial, which has allowed me to gain additional sets of siblings and cousins across the globe.

As a young adult, I felt stagnant. I wanted to do more, see more, experience more, but I felt so boxed into what I had always been and how people perceived me. As a child, I was a shy and quiet, but I found connection in TV shows, movies, books, and comics. This helped me to not only gain an appreciation for art and storytelling but also helped me to occasionally bond over shared interests with my peers. When I felt that listlessness as a young adult, I decided to return to the joys of my childhood. I missed the big adventures and the soft sentiments of family and friendship that were always written about. That was when I began to write stories and draw again.

Drawing introduced me to hundreds of people I never would have met otherwise. It taught me the value and impact of sharing my culture with others. Art opened the door for me to show the beauty and details that are woven into my culture on a global scale. I’ve been introduced to hundreds of other cultures by sharing my art and having others share their art with me. Art has taught me companionship across cultures, giving me an appreciation like no other. Every illustration tells a story, and every written story paints a picture.

Art opened the door for me to show the beauty and details that are woven into my culture on a global scale.

Throughout every creative project I work on, I always incorporate themes of friendship and fantasy. For many, making connections with others and forming friendships can be difficult. It’s not something that comes easily. Because of this, I tend to focus on drawing and telling stories for both children and adults that may have struggled to find connections and friendship in their daily lives. I want it to be clear to people that there is hope out there to find and that a friend can always be around the corner. I want my art to feel warm and safe. I want it to bring a smile to people.

By sharing my own story and culture, I want to encourage others to feel safe sharing their own. We all have stories to share. While those stories may not always be exciting adventures, there are still lessons to learn and friendships to foster even in the mundane stories of our day to day. Just as in the story of the Choctaw-Irish friendship, sharing lands goes beyond the literal; to truly understand each other, we share the lands within our souls too.