📦 The Red Box 📮 That Changed Everything: How I Fought (and Harassed) Canada Post—and Won 🏆

For the last 10 years, I was running Sundaylace Creations out of my living room, my bedroom, and the closet! Beads under the couch, hidden in every corner, even on a shoe rack on the door. Envelopes bought in bulk hidden in crawl spaces. My nephew playing Minecraft while I picked beads and packed orders—pretty much the smallest business owner in Eskasoni. 

Every day, I had to haul my growing pile of bubble mailers to the only post office in Eskasoni—which was inside the band office and closed at 4pm sharp. No after-hours drop-off. No flexibility. No parcel bin. Just long lines, limited hours, and a growing sense that we were being left behind.

Meanwhile, smaller neighbouring towns like Iona and Christmas Island had red parcel boxes and pickup services. But not Eskasoni.

So I said: Enough is enough.

 

The Red Box Saga: Part Grit, Part Petty Sister Energy

In early 2019, before the COVID pandemic, I started asking Canada Post for a large red parcel drop box. Nicely, at first. A call here. An email there. Then follow-ups. Then silence.

So I took it further.

I started harassing my Member of Parliament—who also happened to be my older brother (lucky him). 

• Brought it up at every family dinner (“Hi, can you pass the potatoes and also WHERE IS THE RED BOX?”)

• Spammed his MP Facebook Page with memes 📮 and “gentle reminders”

• Sent long-winded letters to his staff, complete with stats, photos, and a paper trail of postal injustice

They couldn’t ignore me anymore. I made sure of it.

This wasn’t just a fight for a box. It was a fight for basic, equal services for Indigenous businesses. A reminder that we deserve the same tools and infrastructure as any other community.

October 2020: The Day the Red Box Appeared

One day, I pulled into the Eskasoni grocery store parking lot—and froze.

There it was.

A big, beautiful, bold red parcel drop box standing tall like a monument to every email, every Facebook message, and every “Did you get my letter?” moment over the last 18 months.

No announcement. No ribbon cutting. But I didn’t need a ceremony—I just needed that box. And we got it.

And Then Things Kept Getting Better

Since that win, Sundaylace Creations has continued to grow—and so have the services that come to us:

📬 Canada Post now does scheduled pickups daily.

🚚 UPS and Purolator both come to my home on request.

🛒 I no longer have to stand in line, haul heavy mailbags, or race the 4pm closing bell with a kid with a recorder making his own band… driving me and the postal worker crazy!

That red box broke the cycle—and opened the door to growth.

What That Red Box Really Stands For

That red box isn’t just metal. It’s a symbol of resilience.

It stands for all the entrepreneurs who’ve been told to wait. For all the times Indigenous communities were left behind. For every time I questioned whether I was “being too much” or “asking for too much” from a little beadwork store.

It reminds me: we’re allowed to ask. We’re allowed to demand better. And sometimes—yes—we’re allowed to be loud about it.

 

Today, I’m Just Grateful

I think about where Sundaylace started—stocking beads out of my kitchen and storing packages under my bed—and I look at where we are now: courier pickups, national orders, and a supportive community that grew with me, including 10 staff members.

To every beader, auntie, customer, cousin, staff member, and fellow entrepreneur who cheered me on—thank you.

I fought for that red box.

But I carried this business on the backs of beadwork, sisterhood, and stubbornness.

And that will always be something I’m proud of.

📮 Why This Still Matters in 2025

Today—October 18, 2025—Canada Post is in the middle of rotating strikes. Services are delayed. Communities are left waiting. And once again, we’re reminded how fragile and uneven access to reliable shipping can be.

But I’ve learned that we don’t wait quietly. We organize. We write. We call. We demand.

And if needed, we annoy a few relatives in power positions until the system listens.

The fight I started three years ago gave us more than a box. It gave us a voice. And today, it reminds me that in uncertain times, we keep showing up—for our communities, our customers, and ourselves.

 

📮 Canada Post’s Motto vs. Our Reality

 

Canada Post promotes a motto of “service for all.” But when I look back at what I had to fight for—just to get the same basic tools offered to non-Indigenous communities—it’s clear where the injustice lies.

The truth is, when that service isn’t offered equally, the motto becomes a slogan, not a promise.

Three years ago, I had to beg for what others received by default. I had to turn a family dinner into a lobbying session. I had to become a walking reminder that Indigenous businesses deserve equal footing.

As we face rotating strikes and more uncertainty in 2025, let’s not forget: the core issue isn’t just delivery delays—it’s who gets left behind first when systems break.

If we want a true “service for all,” it starts with listening to the communities who’ve had to shout just to be seen.

That red box wasn’t handed to us. It was earned with emails, advocacy, and persistence. And it remains a reminder:

Real service means showing up for all of us—not just the easiest stops on the route.

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💜 Bead with a happy heart,

— Mariah