Joydah Mae grew up among the Ibaloi people, learning that song can carry memory, healing, and truth all at once.
Surrounded by elders, mountain landscapes, and the rhythms of her community, Joydah Mae soaked up stories, rituals, and ancestral wisdom that would shape her for life.
Music became her vessel for grief, joy, and reclamation — turning personal and collective experience into something alive, vital, and deeply felt.
Now performing in Aotearoa & Australia, Joydah transforms lived experience and ancestral knowledge into living medicine.
In her own words, she opens a space to reflect, reclaim, and remember: this is the wisdom she carries, and the gift she offers the world.
The medicine is you.
Today’s world is filled with so much noise, distraction, disruption & disconnection.
Through relationship to self, to other & connection to the land, we find our way back to what it means to be in common-unity.
Joydah’s mission in life is to support the community to remember who they are, as individuals & as a collective.
Growing up in a small rural village (Kabayan, Benguet), Joydah lived a felt sense of true community. Surrounded by elders, carrying the stories, traditions and culture of her people. Threads that have lasted through time and space.
The wisdom that comes with this is what guides Joydah today. The ups and especially the downs of life have offered lessons. Her connection to something greater than herself has offered guidance & faith. Her relationship to community has offered belonging. And her commitment to truth, to love, to purpose – offers her heart to the world.
With Joydah, we see not just a musician bringing heart & soul to the stage. She brings something real and raw. She is returning the sacred to the simple, and helping everyone to remember what it means to have stories be carried through song.
Her music has been described as “transformative” & “lifechanging”. An ode to the presence that is offered through her medicine.
I say medicine because it’s not just music, it truly is medicine.
In such a diverse world it is of deep importance to have artists that bring us back into our bodies, our experiences & our reality. While still invoking a sense of hope, clarity, and belonging. It’s exposing the truth & embodying it.
I show up as all of who I am.
I grew up in an environment with a heavy layer of religion but also a strong indigenous culture present.
Being two spirited, I navigated this space within the community of belonging & being ostracised all at the same time. Polarity coexisting.
I defied the constraints of school, and always wanted to just be me!
My grandmother loved me for who I was, and her love, wisdom & care is what built a strong trust in who I am at the core.
The elders that surrounded me still carried the stories, traditions and culture of my people. Threads that have lasted through time and space. This wisdom connects me so deeply to the land, to my ancestors & to the great spirit.
What brought me to this path is not by chance, nor a childhood dream. Though I’ve always lived to sing, this path fell upon me when I embarked on a journey of healing myself, and reclaiming my innocence from childhood abuse. Facing the truth of my past & acknowledging it for what it is.
Each line of my songs are a reclamation, a way to gather myself whole again.
I accept myself, as a raw & bitter medicine. The kind that will awake your grief… and your gifts. The two live in the same place.
My presence is a reflection where shadows are revealed and choosing the path forward becomes your option.
My deepest purpose is to leave something for my son. To be a good mother. To show him what it means to love, to care and be you!
My life, my songs, it’s the process of rewriting stories. Of writing the future using the lessons of the past. Freeing my bloodlines & creating a living legacy through my DNA.
My music is a way to sow seeds. Each frequency is carried in the memory of waters. It lives in the air we breathe, and in the ashes & smoke of the fire.
This is how I see life. How I see my music. It’s a process & it feels essential to me. Creating is a non negotiable for my wellbeing.
When the songs come they must be written & they must be sung. Sometimes from me & sometimes through me.
When I receive a confirmation from a listener, from someone who receives the music & unique vibration of the song, and it’s moves them to tears… that’s when I know, the great spirit is moving through me. Showing me how to be in the highest timeline & be in deep service to the community.
After reading this article, place your hand on your heart and hum. May you find that you are already home.
