Unearthing truths: The TRC's impact on Indigenous writing

'Colonialism tried to take away our culture': Chyana Marie Sage on the anniversary of the TRC

Luke Beirne

Chyana Marie Sage is the author of Soft As Bones, a memoir about intergenerational trauma. (Anneka Bunnag)

Reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Chyana Marie Sage said its legacy is the buried history it has unearthed.

The Cree, Salish and Métis writer's recently released memoir, Soft As Bones, is her own quest to better understand the childhood trauma and abuse that scarred her family, and its roots to colonialism, she says.

It's also a tapestry of poetry, history, Cree language, traditional ceremony and folklore that delves into her experiences, and those of her family, with compassion and strength.

Overall, it serves as something of a journey of hope for the Edmonton author — a tale of overcoming generations of trauma to reach new heights.

'Sharing their truths'

Sage's journalism has appeared in the Toronto Star, Huff Post and the New Quarterly. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University in New York, where she taught as an adjunct professor.

"I think Indigenous creatives have really responded to [the TRC] by sharing their truths. Step one is the acknowledgement of what happened here in Canada. You see that with a ton of memoirs having come out in the last decade," said Sage, noting works by authors such as Jesse Thistle, Terese Marie Mailhot and Julian Brave Noisecat.

She said these writers are unearthing and critiquing the colonial systems, which not only caused intergenerational trauma but also severed the passing of knowledge.

"There was a period of reflection from residential school and Sixties Scoop survivors," she added, "[but] we're now moving into this space where writers are talking about how those systems are impacting the generation of today."

Over the past 10 years, Indigenous writers have endeavoured to honour the TRC calls to action by uncovering the lasting impacts of colonial systems.

Sage said the impact of this can still be seen in the disproportionate number of Indigenous people who are homeless or incarcerated.

While writing Soft as Bones, the most important thing was "to show how everything is interconnected," says Sage.

Even though she was not in residential school herself, her grandfather was a Sixties Scoop survivor, and this impacted how he parented his own son, Sage's father, who — as the book details — was sexually abused and later abused Sage's older sister.

The original wound

The things that happened in her family while Sage was growing up caused her immense grief and confusion, she says. Her book was an attempt to understand and process her own experiences and search for the "original wound."

"Soft as Bones became this living archive and my family story became this microcosm, really, one small piece of this mosaic that makes up the Indigenous experience in Canada."

While writing about the harm that the colonial structures caused to her family, Sage said she also had another realization.

Sage says writing the book also made her realize that while colonialism tried to take away Indigenous identity, culture and ceremony, those things are all rooted in healing. "So the very thing that they tried to take away is the thing that is giving us our spirit back." 

 My family story became this microcosm, really, one small piece of this mosaic that makes up the Indigenous experience in Canada.

- Chyana Marie Sage

This Indigenous Author Maps The Pain Of Generational Trauma — And The Journey To Healing

“The core of our culture that existed before colonization is actually the thing that’s allowing us to heal from colonization,” says author Chyana Marie Sage. 

"I believe that in order to process and heal from something, we have to confront the dark thing that haunts us," says author Chyana Marie Sage.

Photo: Anneka Bunnag 

By Rajul Punjabi-Johnson | May 19, 2025

"I needed to understand the good, bad, the complicated, and beautiful of every person in the story,” Indigenous author Chyana Marie Sage says about the family members she wrote about in her memoir. “Because that is the full truth of the human experience.”

“Soft As Bones,” Sage’s debut project that drops on May 27, is a prose-driven exploration of generational trauma that stems from the systemic breakdown of her own family unit largely due to the Sixties Scoop, an era during which Canadian child welfare policies allowed for the forceful removal thousands of Native children from their families (they were rehomed to white households).

Her storytelling, in a format she calls a “braided spiral” because of its interwoven cultural mythology and tendency to loop back to the central plot, is both poignant and whimsical.  It’s with this balance that Sage, who has previously written for HuffPost, is able to confront the agonizing and multilayered betrayal by her father — and create a new space for her family to heal.

Throughout the book, especially in the passages of vibrantly detailed folklore and magic realism, there is a levity of spirit that reflects the type of Indigenous resilience that comes with time and reflection.  Sage’s message, as we come to understand toward the end, is that the wealth of community is powerful enough to rebuild what’s been torn down in the past.  And the concept of “returning home” is more about releasing pain and trusting our agency than anything else.

KEEP READING:  https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chyana-marie-sage-memoir-soft-as-bones_n_682b7327e4b095274facef05