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Author Chyana Marie Sage has a new adventure on the horizon: she’s competing on season 12 of The Amazing Race Canada with her sister Chayla Rain.
The new season, hosted by Olympian Jon Montgomery, premieres on July 7. 10 teams will race across Canada and the first pair to cross the finish line wins $250,000 and a trip around the world.
Sage is the Cree, Métis and Salish author of Soft As Bones, a memoir about her quest to better understand the childhood trauma and abuse that scarred her family.
It’s also a tapestry of poetry, history, Cree language, traditional ceremony and folklore — and delves into her experiences and those of her family with compassion and strength.
“Writing this book has been the most cathartic experience of my life,” said Sage on an episode of Bookends with Mattea Roach.
“Healing is a lifelong journey and it never ends and we’re continually growing. But writing this book allowed me to process and release so much that was stored up in my nervous system.”
Sage works at Indspire, a national charity dedicated to Indigenous education. Raised on Treaty Six Territory in Edmonton, she currently lives in Hamilton, Ont.
Sage is teaming up with her sister, Chayla Rain, who works as an executive assistant and is a fiercely protective mom. Chayla lives in Edmonton.
“I feel like we are 100 per cent in sync,” Rain said in the announcement clip. “We mirror each other.”
The sisters are granddaughters of Thelma Chalifoux, who was the first Métis woman appointed to the Canadian Senate.
“We want to show Canada what Indigenous women are truly made out of,” said Sage.