Alan Syliboy grew up believing that native art was generic. “As a youth, I found painting difficult and painful, because I was unsure of my identity.” But his confidence grew in 1972 when he studied privately with Shirley Bear. He then attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where, 25 years later, he was invited to sit on the Board of Governors. Syliboy looked to the Indigenous Mi’kmaq petroglyph tradition for inspiration and developed his own artistic vocabulary out of those forms. His popularization of these symbolic icons has conferred on them a mainstream legitimacy that restores community pride in Mi’kmaq heritage. 

His 2010 Film, Little Thunder, an animated collaboration between Syliboy, director, Nance Ackerman, and animator, Paton Francis, has been screened at numerous film festivals, and received the Best Animation Film Award at the First Peoples Festival in Montreal.

Alan still lives and works in Millbrook, NS, where he was born and raised. He creates his art in his studio in Truro, NS.