rooted in PRIDE

Content creator and activist ASIA JACKSON on navigating the layers of her identity and finding beauty in its complexities.

- BIANCA CUSTODIO.

“One day, seemingly out of nowhere, I had a moment of clarity. I woke up and thought to myself, ‘I’m tired of people telling me who I am’”

WHILE MANY GREW UP WITH MORE COMMONLY KNOWN FOLK DANCES LIKE TINIKLING, Asia Jackson's upbringing was steeped in Igorot traditions like tayaw, passed down from her mother, observed during trips home to Benguet, and in the brief time she lived in the Philippines.

As Asia recalls, the indigenous Ibaloi-Igorot people would dance tay-aw to express joy and celebration. The dance, she says, is typically performed by a man and a woman, draped in woven blankets and wrapped in traditional sarong, respectively. To the clang and beat of the Igorot gangsa (gong) and sulibao (drum), she saw them move rhythmically in circles, arms outstretched, feet bouncing against the earth. This was one of Asia’s fondest childhood memories.

Now based in California, her family continues to stay connected to their indigenous roots. In a video shared on Instagram, Asia joins them as they freestyle in sync to the rhythm of the gongs at a wedding celebration. “Tayaw is more about a feeling,” she writes. “You listen to the music, tap into how it makes you feel, and go.”

It’s the same instinct that’s carried her through life: the pull to move to her own rhythm, to follow where her heart leads. At 30 years old, sharing both African American and Indigenous Filipino roots, the content creator and activist has carved out a space entirely her own, both figuratively and literally.

At the time of our conversation, Asia is in the middle of moving to a new apartment. The day is just beginning in Manila, but she’s winding down in Los Angeles, surrounded by heaps of boxes in what is shaping up to be her new home office.