Canada Post unveils stamp honouring former chief of Okanese First Nation

Canada Post is paying tribute to one of the longest-serving elected chiefs of a First Nation in Canadian history.

A stamp honouring Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier was unveiled during an event Wednesday in Fort Qu’Appelle.

It’s the third stamp in Canada Post’s new Indigenous Leaders series. On Monday — National Indigenous Peoples Day — stamps honouring Day Walker-Pelletier, Harry Daniels and Jose Kusugak will be available at canadapost.ca and postal outlets across Canada.

The stamp honouring Daniels was unveiled Monday, while the stamp paying tribute to Kusugak was revealed Tuesday.

Day Walker-Pelletier was first elected as chief of the Okanese First Nation in 1981 when she was 26 years old. She remained chief until the fall of 2020, serving the most consecutive terms (15 two-year terms and three three-year terms) by an elected First Nations chief in Canada.

“Throughout her leadership, she fought to improve the quality of life of the Okanese and to protect the culture, rights and traditions of all First Nations people through her involvement in numerous tribal, provincial and national initiatives on social reform, health and wellness, and education,” Canada Post said in a media release.

“She was an advocate of many important issues including violence against women, drug abuse, economic development, housing, health and education.”

In 2021, a year after she retired, her push to reintegrate Indigenous foster children into their families resulted in the opening of the Daywalker Home Fire Family Centre.

Day Walker-Pelletier was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2018 and invested in 2019. She also received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2021.

A survivor of the residential school system, Day Walker-Pelletier was part of the delegation that met Pope Francis at the Vatican earlier this year to seek an apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system.