Exiled in the Netherlands, Raki Ap dreams of going home

06/09/2023 29 min
Exiled in the Netherlands, Raki Ap dreams of going home

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Episode Synopsis


Raki Ap grew up in the Netherlands never really understanding why his family was there or why he didn’t have a father. When he was 16-years-old, his mother sat him down and explained that Raki had in fact been born in a refugee camp in Papua New Guinea, after Indonesia invaded his home country of West Papua. He learned that his father - anthropologist and musician Arnold Ap - was targeted and eventually killed by the Indonesian military after his attempts to preserve Papuan culture and identity. From then on, Raki vowed his father’s death would not be in vain, later creating the Dutch branch of the Free West Papua campaign along with his brothers. He dreams of one day going home.  

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