Nubar was born in Egypt to Armenian parents, and grew up speaking Armenian, English and French rather than the majority language of the country, Arabic. After the revolution in Egypt in the 1950s and the rise of Arab nationalism in the region, many Armenians perceived they were going to be worse off and chose the emigrate to places like Australia, and Nubar's family were no exception.
Armenians have a long and rich history that goes back thousands of years, of migrating from their homeland in the Caucasus and settling in forming communities in many different parts of the world, but particularly the Middle East and Asia. It's a history well beyond the limits of this podcast, but Nubar's accounts of some of his family's history will perhaps give a taste of that history.
Nubar arrived in Melbourne with his family when was still school age and ended up initially having a career as a drama teacher, before pursuing and interest in filmmaking, which would ultimately lead to work as a lecturer at the Swinburne Film School in Melbourne. He currently lives on King Island, where his wife was born, a fairly remote island to the north-west of the Tasmanian mainland.
