Canada Post yesterday released four new stamps to raise awareness and encourage reflection on the tragic legacy of Indian residential schools and the need for healing and reconciliation.
The stamps, released in connection with today’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, are the first in an annual series showcasing the visions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists for the future of truth and reconciliation.
Between the 1830s and 1990s, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children across Canada were taken from their families and sent to federally created Indian residential schools. They were stripped of their languages, cultures and traditions. Children endured unsafe conditions, disease, and physical, sexual and emotional abuse while at the church-run schools. Thousands of them never made it home.
Residential school survivors continue to experience trauma from their time at the institutions, and that has been passed down to successive generations.
The four-stamp issue is intended to help Canadians reflect on the injustices and trauma that have been inflicted on generations of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples and calls attention to the responsibility all Canadians have in reconciliation.
The Indigenous languages found on the stamps represent the language and dialect of the artists who created the work.
