Tia Moua empowers Spokane's Asian-Americans
By Marijke Fakasiieiki
As political organizer for Asians for Collective Liberation in Spokane (ACLS), Tia Moua integrates culture with engagement, empowering Spokane's Asian-American community to advocate for diverse history to be taught in Washington schools, to increase language access in court documents, schools and healthcare, and to reduce voting barriers.
As a Hmong American U.S. citizen and native English speaker, born and raised in Spokane, she recognizes her privileged identities, working in solidarity with others, focusing on their needs.
She attended Rogers High School and graduated from Gonzaga University in 2023, double-majoring in communications and sociology, double-minoring in solidarity and social justice.
Tia spent 10 months in Asia in 2023, studying four months in Thailand and six weeks in South Korea. She solo-traveled to Laos, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, learning about Hmong culture, meeting relatives and studying Buddhism.
Staying just two nights in each place, she connected to her nomadic Hmong ancestors who lived in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Myanmar and Laos.
"In Thailand, people assumed I was Thai and talked quickly. When people saw my face, it confused them when I said in Thai, 'I don't speak Thai.' It was comforting to be mistaken as Thai."
She felt she fit in, belonged and wasn't judged for her appearance, unlike in the U.S., where she is often treated as a foreigner. In Spokane, where Asians are 2.6 percent of the population, she is often the only Asian woman in a room.
Teachers discouraged her and other immigrant children from speaking any language but English. Public schools taught students to assimilate to white American culture. Her older brother's preschool teacher told her parents he must stop speaking Hmong and could only speak English at preschool so they could understand him. Then her parents believed they had to teach them to think, dream and act in English to succeed.
Tia advocates for language accessibility for Asian and Asian-American communities, which are the fastest-growing U.S. cultural groups.
"The Spokane Asian community is a rich tapestry of ethnicities with more than 15 languages," said Tia, who helps people imagine a society where they are accepted, instead of being forced to assimilate. "It damages a person's self-worth. Growing up, I felt self-hatred as diverse cultures weren't welcome. It's slightly better now."
Colorism seeped into Hmong culture. Some Hmong advised her not to go out in the sun, because lighter skin is more beautiful than darker skin. Seeing only white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie dolls, white women in magazines and movies, and few Asians in the media, she didn't embrace her brown skin.
"In my late teens, I learned about colorism and white beauty norms of colonialism," Tia said.
While some relatives internalized colonialism, her mother helped her embrace her identity as a Hmong American woman with dark skin, saying: "This makes you beautiful and unique."
Tia was crowned Miss Spokane's Outstanding Teen in 2015 and 2017, and Miss Washington's Outstanding Teen in 2017. She was the first Hmong American state title holder in the Miss America Organization.
Confronting her insecurities and struggles with self-image through therapy, journaling, walks, meditation and reflections on self-love, she slowly accepted and loved her body.
"My role models, mentors and mom taught me to be myself, proud of who I am, and not to change to fit someone else's box," said Tia, who is grateful to the people who encouraged her to see her worth and remind her that beauty shines from within.
Tia attended Gonzaga on an Act Six leadership scholarship. Its mission is to educate, empower and build strong leaders, inspired by Acts 6 in the Bible where communities most impacted by discrimination chose disciples who understood their community's needs to be trained as leaders and return equipped to improve life in their community.
As a junior at GU, Tia created the Asian American Activist group because of the scapegoating Asians experienced from COVID. People spat on, attacked, harassed and killed Asians because political leaders blamed them for the virus. She was scared and expected more turmoil.
Tia investigated Asian exclusion that contributed to discrimination, racism and othering, learning what she was not taught in school. Her culture's stories, contributions, perspectives, leaders and achievements—such as Spokane's downtown Chinatown and international district—are not in history books.
In a communications class, she learned about collective memory. Omitting communities' histories says some people are valued and included, while others are erased. History focused on white males and said little about Indigenous people, Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. This knowledge inspired her to challenge dominant narratives and work with Make Us Visible to advocate teaching Asian American and Pacific Islander history in Washington K-12 schools.
Tia and her Asian American Activist group helped establish the first Asian American monument on Gonzaga's campus in April 2024. It is a bench honoring GU alumnus and Filipino-American labor rights activist Philip Vera Cruz.
When her organization decided to change their name, Tia suggested they name their organization Asians for Collective Liberation in Spokane because she wanted people to understand that they are Asians fighting alongside others for collective liberation since our liberation is intertwined. Tia shared, "We are all interconnected and we all rely on each other to create the beautiful, thriving community that we all envision and deserve where we can be our authentic selves." ACL Spokane started a 501c4 called Asians for Collective Action in 2024.
In 2020, Tia worked on the 2020 U.S. Census to ensure that Asians were accurately counted, because funding is based on groups' unique needs. Data was skewed, she said, because Hmong were counted as East Asians, not Southeast Asians.
Tia also combats the "model minority" myth that Asians are "rich, successful, intelligent, educated, good at math, apolitical and obedient." These seemingly "positive" stereotypes impact Asian communities negatively, limiting resources and increasing stigma when Asians seek help for mental health.
"The myth makes people think Asians do not experience racism or speak up for justice. They set expectations of perfectionism, high achievement and intelligence," she said.
Asian students who struggle may feel they are failures, triggering mental health issues. ACLS teaches destigmatizing to improve students' mental health.
ACL Spokane creates community, collaborates on solutions and builds hope with voter education, social justice policies and actions. As a political organizer, Tia challenges false ideas that Asians are apolitical.
• Tia worked alongside the League of Women Voters to increase civic engagement and voter turnout through a voter education event at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple.
Tia advocates for compensating multicultural leaders who offer their expertise on panels.
"We are overburdened by 'racial labor' as others expect us to educate them," she said. "Sometimes being part of marginalized communities is heavy, but by living in the present and realizing everything is interconnected spiritually, we can be our healthiest selves."
In the 1970s, Tia's parents fled Laos to Thailand. Her mother, a child in a family of 10, hired a Lao shopkeeper with a produce transport boat. They hid under a tarp covered with corn. The first night they tried to cross the Mekong River, but they turned back when they saw Viet Cong soldiers and Pathet Lao communist forces.
The next night, they crossed, arriving at Thai refugee camps considered safer for Hmong, but the Thai government didn't want them and tried to push them out. After settling in the camp, they celebrated Hmong New Year with music, dancing, a courtship ritual and the game 'pov pob.' Women sewed 'paj ntaub,' story or flower cloths, to sell to U.N. workers.
"Often we hear tragic refugee stories, but do not hear about their human pain, grief and joy," Tia said. "I love Hmong resilience, keeping our culture alive in songs, music, folktales, dancing and traditional instruments like the 'qeej.' We lovingly welcome guests to Hmong New Year and other events. We say, 'Come, learn who we are. Watch our dances and eat with us.'"
Tia, who grew up Catholic, is discovering ancestral wisdom from her paternal grandmother, Thia, a shaman who guides her to connect with ancestors and on a self-discovery journey to help her and her family heal intergenerational trauma.
Thinking of her ancestors, her current and future family, Tia considers connections of past, present and future. "I appreciate my ancestors' strength, resilience and bravery as refugees coming to survive."
For information, email tmoua@aclspokane.org or follow her on Instagram @tinytia88.
