Somewhere in the Gulf of Carpentaria, wind and waves lash against a handmade wooden boat. Forty-three West Papuan faces stare into the ocean, terrified and freezing, their tears mingled with prayers of desperation. They haven’t eaten anything or tasted fresh water for days. Now at night, they sit upright, packed together like cargo on what was supposed to be a short ride to freedom. There is no room to lie down, no opportunity to sleep. Calm will come in the morning, but morning is a long way off.

Among them is 15-year-old Danny Merdeka* and his 11-year-old brother. For months they have fasted, praying to God this boat would take them to Australia safely. Each plank of wood was hand-shaped, moulded into place by them and their friends. But this boat is getting them nowhere. For six days they have drifted with a broken engine. And yet, for six days they have sung, prayed and cried out to God like never before.

But on the sixth day they saw something in the distance.

“We saw some land, and when we came closer, red sand along the beach,” says Danny. “We didn’t think of Australia like this. It was so cold at night we thought maybe we’d drifted past Australia to Antarctica, and perhaps around the globe to the US.

“But when our boat landed on the beach and we saw beer cans with the words ‘Made in Brisbane’ on the side we knew we’d made it to Australia.”

Having grown up in West Papua under Indonesian rule, Danny Merdeka witnessed fighting between the indigenous people and the military. He’d heard the screams, the gunshots and the wailing. He’d seen friends taken away by the authorities for political resistance. And then one day his father came home and told him that he and his little brother would be leaving West Papua.

West Papuan refugee Danny back home in Wamena at a cave he used to walk around as a child.

“He said, ‘You have to go to Australia. First, to let people know about what’s happening here, and second, for your future–you can find a good life and good opportunities there.’”

Along with 41 other West Papuans, Danny and his brother set out for Australia. Having heard the journey would take six hours, Danny grabbed a few packets of biscuits and some drinks to last the short boat ride. When the engine broke down and the group were left drifting north of Australia for six days, Danny didn’t think he would survive, but it became clear his faith would.

“Death was on my mind,” says Danny. “I said to my brother, ‘I’m really sorry. This is the most stupid decision we have made.’ But during that journey, everyone prayed, sang, and worshipped God.

“I’d been brought up in a Christian family, but back then I didn’t have a really good relationship with God. I didn’t really experience my relationship with God until I got on the boat with my other 42 friends.”

After being picked up by Customs on the crocodile-infested Cape York Peninsula, the group were taken to Christmas Island. Here, minors were allowed to live in community housing, while those over 18 were sent to detention. Danny started to learn English, attend church, play soccer and get used to the Australian way of life.

But it was on Christmas Island during a routine medical check that doctors discovered Danny had throat cancer. It needed to be operated on immediately, in Perth. The doctors tried to explain, but without good English comprehension and not wanting to make a fuss, Danny just nodded. It wasn’t until he was in the operating theatre and doctors were trying to anaesthetise him that he realised what was going on.

“I saw the doctors in their scrubs and I thought, ‘This is like a movie, I’m going to have surgery.’ I didn’t realise until that point,” he says. “When I went to sleep I thought I was dead. I thought, that’s it, no more Danny.

“There was a massive light above me in surgery, and when I was about to wake up I thought I was in heaven, the light was so bright.”

It wasn’t until two months later, with an interpreter present at a medical check-up, that he finally understood what he’d been diagnosed with.

“I was shocked and surprised when I realised what cancer was and that most people die. But I didn’t even go through chemotherapy. It was amazing.”

After his stay in Perth, Danny was taken to Melbourne to be resettled under a Temporary Protection Visa (TPV). There he was reunited with his brother, placed with a local family and enrolled in an English language course, followed by high school. It was during this time he started to attend St Hilary’s Anglican Church in Kew, where he still goes.

“Even before Year 12 my teachers suggested I shouldn’t be at school—that I should go out and work because my background wasn’t the same as Australian kids. And I said to them, in faith, I came from West Papua to Australia and almost died and this is only VCE. Bring it on! They laughed at me and I said, ‘Just wait and see.’”

Danny did make it through VCE, as well as an Advanced Diploma of Aerospace Engineering, which has led into a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering. Remarkably, Danny’s also been cleared of cancer, and lives independently with his younger brother in Melbourne. When he’s not studying, working in a local pizza shop, teaching Sunday school or broadcasting his West Papuan community radio show, Danny is helping his younger brother with his VCE study. His brother is hoping to study architecture or design at university.

Danny comes from a large, close-knit family, but until last month, the 23-year-old had never been back home. He hadn’t planned to go back to his home town—it was too dangerous, and his emotions too strong—but while in Indonesia on a mission trip, the thought of his family only a few islands away weighed heavily on his mind.

“I just couldn’t not go. I was so close, I felt bad that I wasn’t going home to my family. So I decided to go,” he says. And so it was that last month, Danny met his three and four-year-old brothers for the first time.

“When I arrived at the house I just screamed, ‘I’m home!’ and I asked, ‘Where’s Andrew and Jackson?’ I could see their heads peeking above the windows. When I came into the house they ran into their rooms, giggling. They looked at me and asked, ‘Who are you?’ I said, ‘It’s Danny, your brother!’”

Back home in West Papua, Danny says he felt free for the first time. Free from fearing what might happen if he went back, and free in his faith.

“When I went back I felt like Australia has everything, West Papua has only very little. But in faith, West Papua has so much and Australia so little. West Papua is spiritually rich and Australia is spiritually poor. I feel so blessed to be in the middle.”

Asked his opinion on the Labor Government’s ‘PNG Solution’, Danny, who came to Australia without the assistance of people smugglers feels ambivalent.

“I’ve got two views on this. It is a good way to stop people smugglers, because the smugglers get a lot of money and lie to people. People have to pay so much to them. It’s a good way to stop them.

“But on the other hand, it’s really bad, because there are some West Papuan refugees who live in PNG and even though they’ve been living there for years and years, they don’t have residency or citizenship and are treated as foreigners there. Even though we are Melanesian brothers and sisters, they’re not treated well. So for people who aren’t Melanesian to be sent there, I’m not sure how they will go.”

It’s now been eight years since Danny left his home to seek political asylum and a new life in Australia. He’s received a new life, but what he didn’t expect was a newfound faith.

“God has planned this. I never thought about coming to Australia, or imagined myself sitting here talking to you. But everything that’s happened to my brother and myself it’s all been done with a prayer.

“That’s what my family is like. If you pray, that’s your weapon. So is your Bible. Wherever you go, that’s your weapon. From this journey I’ve learned that God is always with me and he never leaves me alone. He’s there for me all the time and I believe that.”

*Not his real name.