The origins of Indos date back more than 350 years to the Spice Islands of the Indonesian archipelago.

During and after the Indonesian National Revolution, which followed World War II, approximately 300,000 people, predominantly Indos, were forced to leave independent Indonesia to be “repatriated” to the Netherlands. In the late 1950s and early 1960s roughly 60,000 of them continued their diaspora mainly to the United States, where they have smoothly assimilated and integrated into mainstream American society. Many ended up settling in warmer, more inviting locations in the west such as Hawaii, California, parts of the Pacific Northwest and desert Southwest. They can now be found in almost all 50 states. This group of refugee-immigrants has been most successful in assimilating in their adoptive countries.

The rich history of the Indos has been well documented in the Dutch language, but unfortunately not much so in English. Therefore, few people in the English-speaking world, specifically in the USA, are aware of what an Indo is. Even in the rest of the world, the Indo culture and history is still a “cold case”, waiting to be discovered or rediscovered.