Pay tribute to Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier – 40-year leader of the Okanese First Nation – with this Official First Day Cover (OFDC).

The front of the OFDC is a photograph by Cory Generoux of the Daywalker Home Fire Family Centre, located on the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan.

This stamp, part of the inaugural three-stamp Indigenous Leaders issue, pays tribute to Walker-Pelletier, who spent nearly 40 years as leader of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan – the most consecutive terms ever served by an elected First Nations chief in Canada.

The cancellation site is Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, a community near the Okanese First Nation. The cancellation date – June 21 – is National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Designed by Lime Design, this stamp features a photograph of Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier taken in 2019 by her daughter, Ilona Lee Pelletier, at a ceremony celebrating her appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada. The background is a photograph by Cory Generoux of ceremonial teepees on Treaty 4 territory in Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan.

The cancel mark features the crest of the Okanese First Nation (Band No. 382) in Saskatchewan. No other elected First Nations chief in Canada has served more consecutive terms than Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier (b. 1954, Regina, Saskatchewan). During her nearly 40 years as leader of the Okanese First Nation, on Treaty 4 territory near Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, she forged her reputation as a matriarch and champion of her people. Day Walker-Pelletier 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. A survivor of the residential school system, she was particularly passionate about bettering the lives of women and children. In 2021, a year after she retired, her decade-long dream to reintegrate Indigenous foster children into their families culminated in the opening of the Daywalker Home Fire Family Centre. On her appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2018, Tribal Chief Edmund Bellegarde praised the positive impacts of her long-standing leadership: “She casts a big shadow and her voice is thundering; when she speaks, people listen.”

Product # 414190131

Indigenous Leaders – Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker: Official First Day Cover