When the Owl Calls Your Name

A note from Grief Cartoon Coordinator Susan MacLeod:

This month’s Grief Matters guest contributor is Alan Syliboy, a noted Mi'kmaq artist, author, musician, filmmaker, and book illustrator. 

Alan Syliboy looks to the indigenous Mi’kmaq petroglyph tradition for inspiration; his own artistic vocabulary developed out of those forms. His popularization of these symbolic icons has conferred on them a mainstream legitimacy that restores community pride in its Mi’kmaq heritage.

Syliboy lives and works in Millbrook, Nova Scotia, where he was born and raised.  

Of his work, featured in collections around the world, he says, "My work lives in the moment but is profoundly influenced by the past; this gives me my bearings as an artist, and as a human being. My ancestors have provided me with a spiritual global navigation system, and I like to believe that what I do helps to keep the spirits evolving.”

The images in this cartoon are taken from his 2023 book, “When the Owl Calls Your Name,” Nimbus Publishing. Please ask your local bookstore or library for a copy of this powerful book for all ages. 

You'll see I've introduced the three pages from the book shown here with excerpts taken from Syliboy's notes in the book.

- Susan