Mi’kmaw Daily Drum: Mi’kmaw Culture for Every Day of the Week

Mi’kmaw Daily Drum: Mi’kmaw Culture for Every Day of the Week, the second board book by Alan Syliboy, a Mi’kmaw artist and storyteller, identifies the days of the week for its young readers, beginning with Monday and concluding with Sunday. The new work is both like and different from Syliboy’s first board book, Mi’kmaw Waisisk = Mi’kmaw Animals (www.cmreviews.ca/node/222 ). The principal commonality is that, like the animal book, Mi’kmaw Daily Drum celebrates Mi’kmaq culture via its use of the Mi’kmaq language and style of art. Its major difference is in the link between the text and the illustrations. Whereas the illustrations in Mi’kmaw Waisisk = Mi’kmaw Animals were essentially a representation of each page’s named animal, those in Mi’kmaw Daily Drum could be loosely described as being metaphorical.

For his illustrations in Mi’kmaw Daily Drum, Syliboy has used the skin or head of a hand drum, one on which he has painted images to represent a day of the week. The text connected to that day’s drum illustration appears on the facing page, and, as can be seen in the “Excerpt” above, the English word for a day of the week is followed by its Mi’kmaq translation and, in brackets, a guide to its pronunciation. A sentence or two then offers a brief explanation of the major symbol found on the drum head. Adult readers would be advised to turn to the book’s last page, “About the Daily Drums”, before reading the book to youngsters. There, they will find additional explanatory text connected to each day’s drum head illustration. For example, regarding Muin who was linked to Monday, the text reads:

When Muin wakes from her winter sleep, she is chased by the Seven Bird Hunters. All through spring and summer they hunt her. They finally succeed in capturing her in the fall and feast on her in the winter. Her spirit returns to the sky, and the cycle continues.

As a traditional concept book, one that is in this case introducing the days of the week, Mi’kmaw Daily Drum really does not work well for its very young audience. However, as an introduction to, and reinforcement of, the Mi’kmaq culture, it is moderately more successful. Though the clarifying notes at the end of the book are somewhat helpful in interpreting the art, readers, especially those adults who are acting as intermediaries, will want more. Hopefully, Syliboy will return to this topic in a much expanded version for an older reading audience.

Those wishing to see more of Syliboy’s painted drum heads belonging to his Daily Drum art series can find them at http://www.alansyliboy.ca/drum-series