By Sentinel Staff
The U.S. Postal Service will officially release the “Raven Story” stamp at 11 a.m. Friday at the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau.
The stamp, designed by Juneau-based Rico Lanáat’ Worl, a Tlingit and Athabascan artist, depicts Raven freeing the sun, stars and moon.
The ceremony will be streamed live through the heritage institute’s YouTube channel.
In Sitka, Postmaster Celia Dumag said the stamps, which are being issued as a Forever Stamp in panes of 20, will be available for sale at the local post office starting at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
The Postal Service said Antonio Alcalá, who served as art director on the project, reached out to Rico Worl about creating the stamp after seeing Worl’s work for sale at the National Museum of the American Indian gift store in Washington, D.C.
The stamp, the first ever illustrated by a Tlingit artist, depicts Raven just as he escapes from his human family and begins to transform back into his bird form, the Postal Service explained.
“Art is kind of integral to indigenous culture. It has always been around me, it’s always been integral to my life. … I’ve always been involved in being creative,” Worl said in an interview with the Sentinel last year.
The “Raven Story” stamp by Rico Lanáat’ Worl will be available Friday. (Photo provided)
The artwork includes Raven flanked by the stars as he makes his escape from a clan house.
“It’s more focused on this exciting moment of trying to pull off this heist. And I wanted to show some of that drama and excitement from the story,” Worl said.
“Raven is trying to grab as many stars as he can, some stuck in his feathers and in his hands or in his beak. Some falling around him. It’s a frazzled moment of adrenaline,” he said.
“Partially still in human form, as depicted as his hand still being human, as he carries the stars away. I think it depicts a moment we all have experienced, the cusp of failure and accomplishment,” Worl wrote on his blog.
“Because it was a national platform, I wanted to be able to give a good access point for a non-Tlingit audience to be able to learn about the culture. And that story is a foundational story for a lot of Tlingit ideology and ways of being,” Worl said.
The Postal Service said the Raven Story stamp is being issued as a Forever Stamp in panes of 20. The current price of a Forever Stamp is 55 cents, and will always be equal to the current first class one-ounce price.
Raven Story stamps will be available at post offices and online at usps.com.
