2021-05-12

Mi’kmaq artist Alan Syliboy hopes church panels will take visitors “on new journeys of mind and soul”

Mi'kmaq artist Alan Syliboy continues to stretch the boundaries of his creations. Last month he unveiled three, 1.2 metre by 1.8 metre art panels to the congregation of Pictou United Church.

Inspired by petroglyphs found throughout Mi'kma'ki, the panels depict Spirit Guides: a moose, an eagle in flight, and a whale to complement the diverse spirituality of the church's contemplative garden, Spirit Glen, and honour its place in Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people.

The unveiling on April 18 was the culmination of a three-year collaboration between Syliboy and graphic designer Mark Austin, with digital files rendered into the panels by Eastern Sign Print of Advocate Printing and Publishing, owner of LighthouseNOW and represented by Mark Holliday.

Syliboy lives in the Millbrook First Nations community outside of Truro. His work has been shown across Canada and the United States and from Europe to Japan, and his murals are a feature of the Stanfield International Airport as well as the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. However, this is Syliboy's first art installation in a place of worship.

In his reflections shared with the congregation, Syliboy acknowledged this as a significant step in the long journey toward reconciliation. An artist statement accompanying the panels expresses his hope that "this visual story will take visitors in this peaceful place on new journeys of mind and soul."

A number of years ago, Syliboy was in Lunenburg unveiling another of his artistic renditions.

Typically the domain of hushed whispers and silent reading, Bridgewater's Margaret Hennigar Public Library was the backdrop of an explosion of colourful art, resounding drumbeats and Mi'kmaq chants in February, 2015.

The library hosted the opening ceremony for The Thundermaker, a multimedia art exhibit created by Syliboy based on the story of Little Thunder.

The exhibit also included works by a number of other First Nations artists.

Held in the corridor immediately in front of the library at the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre, the opening ceremony featured a performance by the 10 members of the Women of the Shore big drum group.

The Thundermaker exhibition travelled among select libraries throughout the province and was taken from the Mi'kmaq legend of the stone canoe, in which the Thundermaker story is embedded. Although it's believed to date back more than 150 years, the stone canoe legend was only discovered in the library at Acadia University in 2003 by poet and essayist Peter Sanger.

Speaking to LighthouseNOW at that ceremony, Syliboy said it took four years to translate the legend, which was later made available in a book called The Stone Canoe, illustrated by Syliboy and published by Gaspereau Press.

Through various forms of art, viewers of the exhibit were invited to follow Little Thunder as he learned about his Mi'kmaq identity. The creation began with a series of text panels illustrated with Syliboy's drawings, and culminated with a tipi containing a projected animated film of the story. Nova Scotia Community College students created the animation under the direction of Syliboy.

Speaking to LighthouseNOW, the artist said, "This is the story that launched my writing career." Syliboy's book, The Thundermaker, which he wrote and illustrated, was published by Nimbus in 2018.

Contributed in part by Ruth Mackay, a member of the Pictou United Church congregation.