Canada Post releases 4 stamps to honour Orange Shirt Day milestone

Canada Post releases 4 stamps to honour Orange Shirt Day milestone

Inuk artist honoured 'to be a part of something of this magnitude'

A new set of stamps from Canada Post designed by Indigenous artists is honouring a milestone for Orange Shirt Day.

This year, students in B.C. graduating high school have participated in Orange Shirt Day, learning about the legacy of residential schools, since kindergarten.

Inuk storyteller Jason Sikoak, who works in all mediums, said he felt excited and honoured "to be a part of something of this magnitude."

"I saw a picture today of the stamp collection and I'm still trying to let it sink in," said Sikoak.

In a news release, Canada Post stated the Survivors Circle of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation chose orange shirts to be featured on the 2026 stamps.

It said three of the stamps show the experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, while the fourth stamp "honours Mother Earth, symbolizing the connection among past, present and future generations."

Each of the four stamps is shaped like a T-shirt, with illustrations by Sikoak, Emily Kewageshig, and Christi Belcourt, and the stamp issue was designed by Blair Thomson.

Sikoak said his design was inspired from hearing about the students first learning about Orange Shirt Day as kindergarteners now graduating. It was to him like a full circle moment.

He put the graduating student in the middle and each one coming behind them are those who will be following in their footsteps, at different ages and grades.

Sikoak, who's from Rigolet in Nunatsiavut, said his parents are residential school survivors as well as his oldest sibling. He and his other sister were supposed to go as well, but a school was moved into their community.

"It was a way for me to tell that part of my story through my drawing but also celebrating the 12 years of the children who haven't had to go to residential schools and remembering those who have gone before us," he said.

Sikoak said he hopes the stamps will have people want to ask questions of what happened, and see the right people to ask those questions.

He said he's overwhelmed and a bit in disbelief, that a little Inuk like him, that comes from a community of 300 people got this kind of opportunity.

"Having the artwork on the stamp from Canada Post, it's pretty amazing," said Sikoak.

Orange Shirt Day as a movement grew from a story of Phyllis Webstad, a Secwépemc woman from Stswecem'c Xget'tem First Nation.

Webstad went to residential school at age six wearing an orange shirt bought by her grandmother that was taken away on her first day.

Orange Shirt Day creator Phyllis Webstad reflects on inspiring a movement

In a recorded interview shared by Canada Post, Webstad notes the first cohort of kids who marked the day in kindergarten are now graduating.

"The students from the public school system will start to graduate, knowing what happened to us, and will have empathy," she says in the interview.

"Myself as a survivor of Indian residential school, when I see someone wearing an orange shirt, it's a little bit of justice in my lifetime for what happened to me and I know I've heard other survivors say that. That seeing someone in orange, it means that you care."

Louise has been a journalist with CBC since September 2022. She is Nakota from Ocean Man First Nation. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from the First Nations University of Canada. Louise can be reached at louise.bigeagle@cbc.ca.