Canada Post unveils Indigenous Leaders stamp series honouring Anishinaabe Water Walker

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — A new stamp paying tribute to the late Grandmother Water Walker Josephine Mandamin-baa was unveiled by Canada Post on June 18 at the Spirit Garden on Thunder Bay’s waterfront. The stamp is one of three Indigenous Leaders stamps, including stamps featuring Elisapie and Christi Belcourt, that will be released on June 21. The set of three stamps is the third in Canada Post’s multi-year Indigenous Leaders series.

“Thank you for being here … to celebrate the life and the legacy, just the message of my mother,” says Regina Mandamin, Josephine-baa’s daughter. “This is such a huge honour, not just for my mother, but for our family because I don’t know if people realize how much we shared with her and how much sacrifice she made. The water and the communities were calling her to do this work, she loved the lodge — she [was] a fourth-degree Midewiwin, the Three Fires Lodge, and that’s where she got this calling, this message to speak up for the water, and she started a movement.”

The late Grandmother Water Walker, who served as the Anishinabek Nation Chief Water Commissioner before she passed in 2019, walked more than 25,000 kilometres, including around all five Great Lakes, beginning in 2003 and until her final Water Walk in 2017 to raise awareness of water pollution and environmental degradation in the Great Lakes and other waterways across Turtle Island.

“It’s quite an honour to have her image on a postage stamp,” says Andrew Mandamin, Josephine-baa’s surviving spouse. “The whole family is ecstatic and we’re so proud of her for Canada Post doing this. She did sacrifice a lot for the water and it’s good that she’s being recognized for what she did, she started a global movement for the Water Walks.”

Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige says she participated in some of the late Grandmother Water Walker’s journeys.

“She helped mobilize the Water Walker movement and we’ve created some in our own communities back on Mnidoo Mnising (Manitoulin Island),” Grand Council Chief Debassige says. “I sat with her at the Great Lakes Guardian Council and I’ve learned from her for many years — she’s truly a remarkable woman who has brought awareness and advocacy to the Great Lakes by far more than anybody else ever has.”

Grand Council Chief Debassige says the late Grandmother Water Walker’s sharing of a prophecy that water would be more expensive than gold by 2030 resonated with her as a young woman.

“My own journey has been influenced by Josephine-baa in our efforts and efforts that I’ve participated in to ensure our First Nations have access to clean safe drinking water and that our water is preserved for generations to come,” Grand Council Chief Debassige says.

Wiikwemkoong Elder Shirley Williams says she and the late Grandmother Water Walker used to keep their language alive at Indian Residential School by going for walks where they secretly spoke Anishinaabemowin with each other.

“We survived the Residential School, we survived to keep our language and for what, for our culture, for our future of our people because we knew what it was like to be forbidden to speak your language and forbidden to practice or even talk about our culture,” Elder Williams says, noting that she and the late Grandmother Water Walker used to talk about the hardships they went through, laugh about it and then go on with their lives. “She said, ‘Until I leave this world, I’m going to do as much work as I can,’ and I said, ‘So am I.’”

Jon Hamilton, vice-president, strategic communications at Canada Post, says Canada Post’s stamp program recognizes incredible stories and incredible people.

“Today, we are here to recognize our Grandmother Josephine, the Grandmother Water Walker and her incredible story, just a tireless environmentalist, a tireless advocate for water conservation, and the feat of just walking around the Great Lakes [and] dedicating her life after a childhood spent in Residential Schools and the difficulties to say every minute I’m going to be on this Earth I’m going to use it to do some good,” Hamilton says. “Josephine’s story is a story that one person can make a difference.”

Information about this year’s issue of the Indigenous Leaders stamp series is posted online.