Yopi Abraham (Netherlands) is a visual artist, storyteller, graphic designer, and professional photographer with more than thirty years of experience in telling and visualising cultural and social narratives. His work exists at the intersection of art, history, and identity, drawing on his Moluccan-Ambonese heritage as a lens through which to explore broader themes such as colonialism, community self-determination, and cultural transmission.
Yopi is a bearer of oral and ritual Moluccan-Ambonese knowledge, acquired through direct transmission in his ancestral village. This includes knowledge of adat negeri, the village structures and histories of Moluccan negeri communities — including the pela alliances between villages, the soa and saniri (governance and consultative structures), and the mata rumah system (clan and lineage structures) — as well as masuk minta (traditional marriage protocols) and the playing of the tifa and totobuang. This knowledge, traditionally passed down orally and rarely documented in writing, forms the foundation from which he tells stories and translates them for a wider audience.
He is the founder of Nesian Stories, a platform for Pacific cultural storytelling and events, and co-founder of AMI (Awareness Moluccan Identity), an initiative focused on raising awareness of Moluccan identity and community self-determination. As an artist and storyteller, he works across painting, wood carving, murals, and photography to give visibility and a face to stories that might otherwise remain unseen.
Among his most notable projects is the design of the national monument Beta Berlayar Djauh in Amsterdam, commemorating the Moluccan marines, which was unveiled on 29 April 2026. He also served as lead designer and art director for De stad die wij delen / Amersfoort en haar slavernijverleden, a book exploring Amersfoort’s history of slavery through an intersection of history, community, and visual storytelling.
His work has also received media coverage in Aotearoa, New Zealand, where he created a mural in Auckland. In the Netherlands, he has appeared on television programmes including Sterren op het Doek and Binnenste Buiten. His work has also been featured in various magazines and books.