Wabba the Artist Activist

If Da Vinci were reincarnated in the Caribbean today, he would probably be Iain Milne: a surfer dude who paints landscapes in oil, runs a nightclub, and designs boats to run on peanut oil.

The man known for years as Wabba the Artist has reinvented himself as Wabba the Activist. His Hemingway-esque obsession with the sea has inspired some of his acclaimed oil paintings, and his latest project - a catamaran that will be powered by wind and cooking oil.

The former fisherman/boat charter captain is also an informal historian. He has the largest collection of Amerindian artifacts outside of the National Museum, which he gifted with four-fifths of the pottery he has collected. He has an intellectual interest in the tribes who lived on these islands for 11,000 years before Columbus’ arrival, in particular the Kalinga and the Kalipuna, the ‘bad boys’ of that era. He is deeply connected to the land and sea, having grown up in the lush, forested Maracas Valley in St Joseph, Trinidad, and spent the last 32 years in Tobago, which was once the domain of the largest Kalinga civilization in the region.

In that time he designed and built The Shade, an open-air nightclub built in the style of the huts of indigenous Indian in South America. The Shade, with its iconic thatched roof, has seen the likes of Queen Latifah and Virgin owner Richard Branson, and was featured on MTV's The Real World, and in BET videos.

Wabba’s latest project, as he clocks a half century this year, is to start a movement he calls Blue. Blue, in Wabba’s vision, is the new Green. “I’m trying to create a movement where boat owners can adjust their lives to an extent that they become blue (green). At this stage of my life I was supposed to nail myself down in one place,” he explains. “But I’ve decided to become as carbon zero as possible instead. Living on a boat you become more conscious of your energy needs because you have to create all the energy you use.”

Using a wind turbine and an engine adapted to run on recycled cooking oil, his catamaran will have a washer and dryer, television, air-conditioning, the works. He decided against solar panels because his research has shown that it takes more resources out of the environment to make the panels that they can ever put in.

“My ultimate goal is to live the life of a millionaire on recycled energy, without spending millions of dollars. It’s really an energetic, hyper effort to do nothing,” he confessed wryly. The catamaran, which is being built at Peakes marina in Chaguaramas, will be called Tobago Blu.

Having painted for a living for many years, Wabba hung up his brush 10 years ago. “I’m glad to have the luxury not to have to paint these days, but I definitely have plans to start back down in the last two-thirds of my life,” he says.

For now though, he intends to indulge his passion for the sea, and live in harmony with the planet. “My mission," he says, “is for my address to be ‘Wabba, Somewhere in the Caribbean’.”

can adjust their lives to an extent that they become blue (green). At this stage of my life I was supposed to nail myself down in one place,” he explains. “But I’ve decided to become as carbon zero as possible instead. Living on a boat you become more conscious of your energy needs because you have to create all the energy you use.”

Using a wind turbine and an engine adapted to run on recycled cooking oil, his catamaran will have a washer and dryer, television, air-conditioning, the works. He decided against solar panels because his research has shown that it takes more resources out of the environment to make the panels that they can ever put in.

“My ultimate goal is to live the life of a millionaire on recycled energy, without spending millions of dollars. It’s really an energetic, hyper effort to do nothing,” he confessed wryly. The catamaran, which is being built from fallen trees at Peakes marina in Chaguaramas, will be called Tobago Blu

Having painted for a living for many years, Wabba hung up his brush 10 years ago. “I’m glad to have the luxury not to have to paint these days, but I definitely have plans to start back down in the last two-thirds of my life,” he says.

 For now though, he intends to indulge his passion for the sea, and live in harmony with the planet. “My mission," he says, “is for my address to be ‘Wabba, Somewhere in the Caribbean’.”