
Poly-Amnesia: Finding a lost sense of Polynesian identity through diasporic art
Josef from the 2210 in South-West Sydney has been on a quest to find himself through a reflection on his family’s past and how it shapes the context in which he lives today. It Takes a Village is an ethos to live by that Josef has always felt, he just had to rekindle with the past to understand it.
Connection to culture in the colonial diaspora we call Australia is challenging and isolating. Through great art detailing this experience, however, this connection to culture can be made clearer. My friend Kai first put me onto Josef last year, just after the release of his debut tracks. He saw Josef play at a Beat Kitchen event in 2023 and was struck by his polished talent and storytelling, even as a new artist. Like Kai, the connection I felt to Josef’s first single ‘Ten Toes’ was special from the first listen. The way the soul-sample driven beat combines with Josef’s lullaby-like flow is classic.
It was Josef’s lyrics, however, that detailed an observation close to my heart that I really connected with. I heard the line “mums from the islands but I still don’t know my cousins” and mulled it over for weeks. My grandmother was born in Samoa before she moved to Fiji and had my mother in New Zealand and not a whole lot is known about her. My mother Avice, an eternal source of inspiration and light, would pass this oral-knowledge on to me. She would always tell me “you are Polynesian, you have family in the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand and all over the Pacific.” Much like many Polynesian mums, she imposed wisdom and information on her children at the tender age of five or six before I understood what the Pacific, or what Polynesia is.

In my adult years, I am trying to connect with this wisdom and find this identity but it is troubled due to a cultural gap. Much like Josef, I have cousins from the islands message me on Facebook and I don’t know who they are. My mum passed away when I was quite young and stressed the importance of being proud of my culture and identity, something I have struggled with since her passing. Albeit with good intentions, there is a cultural and language barrier keeping me from really knowing who they are, and as a result, who I am. A unique but shared experience of first-generation born immigrant children in Australia trying to find themselves through trying to connect with a past that feels distant yet intuitive.
Josef has a gift for documenting and capturing this experience of diaspora as a white-passing Polynesian in Sydney. As Josef says on ‘Big Time’, “I feel it in my heart tryna find where I belong”. I feel closer to my roots when I listen to Josef’s music.
Josef’s debut album It Takes a Village, released by Sydney-Based independent label Beat Kitchen Records, is a triumphant rumination on self-determination, diaspora and belonging to culture through finding community. It Takes A Village sees Josef offer lamentations of love and pain over jazzy, soulful and hard-hitting production by up-and-coming Sydney producers tee8 (shout out the green line) & ZARNI.
The album has complimentary verses from friend and fellow Sydney artist Yibby on Melo & WA’s MALI JO$E on ‘Chin Up’. Complimenting reflections by Josef on being a white-passing Maori & Cook Islander and growing up in public housing in Sydney’s south-west. ‘2003’ depicts the struggles of public housing, poverty, violence and how he overcame it. ‘Chin Up’ is a ode-to-self where Josef finds strength in himself to overcome these hardships, with one of the best beats of the year by tee8.

‘Big Time’ sees Josef lament on his Polynesian roots and finds solace in his hereditary skills of storytelling. He finds power in his words, with the hopes of setting the blueprint for boys from the area in years to come. Whilst many of the themes are about hardship, Josef is an optimist and his vivid imagery when reflecting on an ill-documented perspective is refreshing and inspiring for future generations of mixed-Polynesian kids who can relate.
On the track ‘Home’, for example, he describes the special longing of coming home to a warm place and grazing his knees playing rugby with his cousins. Aside from his rapping, we see the diverse nature of his artistry and his singer-songwriter potential on acoustic cuts that start and end the album ‘Ngatokorua’ and ‘Mavea’. It Takes a Village is a contemplative album, and one that shows the diverse skill-set of Josef and potential for future projects.

The album title “It Takes a Village” holds salient meaning to the creative process and ethos of the album. About a week after the album came out, I ran into Josef and had the pleasure of discussing themes of the album. I asked him about one of my favourite tracks, ‘A Mothers Interlude’, which features a spoken word piece from a woman with a thick accent Kiwi accent talking about the need for interdependence, not independence, for community.
Further, it addresses how capitalism creates inequality, which is directly oppositional to culture and community. I asked which politician he had sampled and he replied, “nah bro, it’s my girlfriend Ella’s mum, Amanda. She was gardening and came up with that first go when I asked if she wanted to say something on the album.”

He told me that through Ella’s Maori family he has felt more culturally aware and confident. I met Ella at a phenomenal Beat Kitchen Records hosted tour for Josef’s new album on a Marrickville rooftop. She is a talented visual artist and told me she painted the album cover depicting the housing commission where Josef grew up. We shared an appreciation for Josef’s album where she told me that her brother Jackson Lister mixed the album. Jackson is a talented audio engineer who mastered the gritty lo-fi Slums-like sound that offers enough space for Josef’s bars and the beat to knock.
Living up to this name, it took a village to make this album come together. It takes a community for people to understand where they belong. Josef has found it on It Takes a Village, a victory lap for Sydney music, and Polynesian-Australian identity.
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