Martin Morabubuna the artist preparing his presentation for a talk at UPNG in June 2013. Martin was a very engaging presenter who put his current work in the context of his Trobriand Islands upbringing, He was finalising his apprenticeship as a traditional master painter story teller when he finished his high school studies to take up a scholarship at the newly opened Creative Arts Centre (National Arts School in the early 1970s).

His art has continually evolved as he has matured, and he sees himself working with his own messages and traditional stories to tell through new means to an international audience. His deploring of the neglect of serious creative endeavour in PNG over the years was well reasoned and very moving, especially his concern for the dearth of opportunity and lack of support for emerging young talents in the nation.

Martin’s famous early prints from the 1970s are in expatriate private collections and in some institutional collections in PNG, Australia and overseas. His mature painting style recently is concerned with modern Trobriand Island themes expressed through a subtly inflected style influenced by his studies of cubist european masters.