Survivors Circle of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation selected the Bentwood Box as the subject for this year's stamps
WINNIPEG, MB, Sept. 29, 2025 /CNW/ - In commemoration of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Canada Post today released new stamps featuring the Bentwood Box as a tribute to Survivors and a symbol of healing, reconciliation and hope.
The stamps present the Bentwood Box created by Coast Salish artist Luke Marston for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada in 2009. The box travelled with the TRC to its eight national events throughout Canada. People placed personal and often sacred items in it to symbolize their spiritual journey toward healing and as gestures of truth and reconciliation. Photographs, reports, books, drums, knitted baby blankets and beaded regalia were among the thousands of items put in the box.
Bentwood box traditional uses
Bentwood boxes are traditional to Canada's Northwest Coast. Indigenous communities used them as storage boxes for food, medicine or ceremonial regalia, water buckets, burial boxes, canoe tackle boxes and drum boxes. The boxes were also used to steam or cook food by filling them with water and adding hot stones from a fire.
Master carver Luke Marston
Coast Salish artist Luke Marston – a master carver from the Stz'uminus First Nation on Vancouver Island – steamed, bent and carved the box in the traditional style from a single piece of sacred old-growth red cedar. Marston is from a family of carvers and his art is deeply influenced by the stories, traditions and natural environment of his Coast Salish heritage.
Partnership with the Survivors Circle
Canada Post continued its partnership with the Survivors Circle of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) to create this fourth issue of its Truth and Reconciliation stamp series. Canada Post thanks the Survivors Circle for their guidance and for choosing the Bentwood Box for the series. The partnership helps ensure that the perspectives and voices of Survivors remain central to the stamp creation process.
About the stamps
The issue includes three unique stamps (available in a booklet of six) and an Official First Day Cover (OFDC). Each of the three stamps features a different side of the Bentwood Box reflecting the distinct cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis from across the country, and their children who attended residential schools.
On the stamp depicting the front panel of the box, crosses represent the churches that ran residential schools (with the federal government), while raised hands symbolize the helplessness felt by parents when their children were taken away from them and sent to residential schools.
Another stamp features a panel on the box that relates Inuit experiences at residential schools. The northern lights and stars in the background represent Inuit ancestors and teachings. Students were separated from this knowledge while at residential schools.
On the third stamp, a panel depicts student experiences from the Prairies and Eastern Canada. The infinity symbol, found on the Métis flag, acknowledges the Métis children who were taken to residential schools.
The back of the Bentwood Box features the Thunderbird, which is shown on the back of the OFDC and inside the booklet. The carving of the Thunderbird proclaims the strong voices of Indigenous Peoples, which are essential to reconciliation. The stamps are cancelled in Winnipeg, the location of the NCTR and where the Bentwood Box is housed today.
Stamp products are available at canadapost.ca and at select postal outlets across Canada. For the stamp images and other resources:
- External folder with high-resolution images
- Two videos (Coast Salish artist Luke Marston and Survivors Circle member Eugene Arcand)
- Canada Post magazine article
- Social media posts – Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
SOURCE Canada Post
For more information: Media Relations, 613-734-8888, [email protected]
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