This souvenir sheet features three stamps honouring the remarkable individuals in the 2024 edition of the Indigenous Leaders series:

• Christi Belcourt, Métis visual artist and environmentalist

• Elisapie, award-winning singer-songwriter, actor, director, producer and activist

• Josephine Mandamin, Anishinaabe Elder and world-renowned water-rights activist

Good to know

The Indigenous Leaders series recognizes the outstanding achievements and contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders. The 2024 issue pays tribute to three remarkable women:

• Christi Belcourt, Métis visual artist and environmentalist

• Elisapie, award-winning singer-songwriter, actor, director, producer and activist

• Josephine Mandamin, Anishinaabe Elder and world-renowned water-rights activist

The souvenir sheet is the only way to purchase one of each of the new Permanent™ stamps in a single product.

About the Indigenous Leaders series

The Indigenous Leaders series, launched in 2022, highlights the contributions of modern-day First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders who dedicated their lives to preserving their culture and improving the quality of life of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

About the Indigenous Leaders

Christi Belcourt

Christi Belcourt (b. 1966) is a Métis visual artist and environmentalist who uses her talent to celebrate nature, honour her ancestors, advocate for the protection of land and water, and support Indigenous knowledge, culture and language.

A descendant of the Métis community of Manitow Sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne) in Alberta, she is well known for her intricate paintings that emulate Métis floral beadwork. Her work can be found in many private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Gabriel Dumont Institute.

The power of Belcourt’s art lies in both its beauty and its message. One of her most poignant works is Walking With Our Sisters, a multi-artist installation of more than 2,000 pairs of beaded moccasin tops honouring the lives of missing or murdered Indigenous women, Two-Spirit people and children.

As co-founders of the community-based Onaman Collective, she and Isaac Murdoch volunteer their time to create resources and space for land-based Indigenous practices, including language revitalization.

Belcourt’s many honours include a Governor General’s Innovation Award, for advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and recognition of their lands.

Elisapie

Unconditional love for her homeland and tender reflections on Inuit culture and traditions are deeply entrenched in the work of Inuk singer-songwriter, actor, director and activist Elisapie (b. Elisapie Isaac, 1977).

Raised in the remote community of Salluit in Nunavik, the northernmost region of Quebec, she began singing on stage as a teenager with her uncle. After moving to Montréal to pursue communications and music, Elisapie wrote and directed the prize-winning documentary Sila piqujippat (If the Weather Permits) and won a JUNO Award as part of the musical duo Taima.

The Ballad of the Runaway Girl (2018), which showcased her storytelling talent and her ability to sing effortlessly in Inuktitut, English and French. Inuktitut (2023) is a nostalgic compilation of covers that she performs in her mother tongue of songs by artists – from Blondie to Led Zeppelin – who influenced her growing up. It earned her the 2024 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year.

Elisapie is the creator and producer of Le grand solstice, a musical and cultural celebration televised annually to mark National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Josephine Mandamin

Known as Grandmother Water Walker, Anishinaabe Elder Josephine “Biidaasige” Mandamin (1942-2019) trekked more than 25,000 kilometres – including around all five Great Lakes – to raise awareness of the need to preserve the sacred, life-giving gift of water.

The residential school Survivor and fourth-degree member of the Three Fires Midewiwin Society was born on Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, and lived most of her life in Thunder Bay, serving as a spiritual adviser and healer.

In 2002, she and a group of other Anishinaabe women founded the Mother Earth Water Walk movement to encourage people to protect water from pollution and other threats. Between 2003 and 2017, she led walks along the shores of waterways in Canada and the United States – singing, praying, and sharing the traditional ceremonies and knowledge of her people.

Her many honours included the Meritorious Service Cross, for her contributions to Indigenous leadership and reconciliation, and the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation.

Mandamin’s legacy lives on through community water walks and the dedicated Anishinaabe women she mentored, who continue to carry out her work and share her powerful message of environmental conservation.

About the design

The souvenir sheet features a dark blue background and the three stamps in this year’s Indigenous Leaders issue:

• Christi Belcourt (Métis)

• Elisapie (Inuit)

• Josephine Mandamin (First Nations)

Product # 404260145

Indigenous Leaders souvenir sheet of three (2024)