Sam Madore, Manager of Marketing & Communications, Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia
For more than a decade, Mi’kmaw artist Alan Syliboy has been sharing his colourful hand-painted drums and messages rooted in Mi’kmaw culture with followers online. But his art has also found its way into communities, performances and projects across Nova Scotia — including through his longtime support of the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia.
“Alan is an incredibly generous contributor to the Foundation,” says Foundation President and CEO Starr Cunningham. “He is always so modest in sharing his talent. Through the years, he has donated artwork to our Holiday Black Tie Gala auctions. His paintings and drums are always popular with our guests and we feel exceptionally fortunate to call him a friend.”
In conversation, Syliboy is less likely to talk about his own accomplishments than the culture, community, and people who have been part of his story. The first drum he ever painted was for one of those people.
“My grandfather was a singer. He was a drummer,” Syliboy says. “He sang in the church and he had a drum he wanted me to paint.”
Decades later, drums have become an important part of Syliboy’s artistic practice and a way to share Mi’kmaw stories, symbols and teachings with audiences well beyond his own community.
“The drum is a messenger,” he explains. “You play a drum for prayer, for social events, for dance.”
That role eventually found its way to social media almost by accident. Syliboy was looking for something to post on Facebook and began sharing daily images of his painted drums. After posting for a few days, he stopped. People noticed and began asking what had happened to the Daily Drum.
“We started something and we had no idea where it was going to go,” Syliboy recalls.
Years later, the Daily Drum continues to appear online, combining Syliboy’s distinctive artwork with messages that invite people to pause, reflect and learn.
“People are curious,” he says. “They don’t know about Mi’kmaw culture. This is a way to present the culture.”
The Daily Drum is just one part of an artistic career spanning more than five decades. Syliboy’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, while his creative practice has continued to evolve across painting, writing, music and other forms of storytelling. He continues to find new ways to share Mi’kmaw culture with younger generations, including through his children’s books and music with his band, The Thundermakers. Like the Daily Drum, many of these creative paths have developed organically.
“A lot of things in my life were like that,” he says. “We didn’t really set out to do certain things, but circumstances allow us to go in all kinds of directions.”
Syliboy’s connection to the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia is personal too. Knowing the power that support can have in someone’s life, he believes in the Foundation’s work and the role art can play as a catalyst for conversation, connection and community. The themes that run through much of his work — culture, identity and belonging — also reflect what supports positive mental health.
When I ask what brings him happiness today, his answer gets to the heart of what has guided his work all these years.
“I think we’re making a contribution to the culture and an awareness of the culture.”
And Syliboy continues to find new ways to do just that. One drum, one story, one connection at a time.
This story was published on September 29, 2026 in the Chronicle Herald’s Senior Living column.
