Meet the Canadian Indigenous, Two-Spirit Couple who Won ‘The Amazing Race’

Anthony Johnson and James Makokis are the first Indigenous, two-spirit couple to not only compete on The Amazing Race Canada, but win!

Amazing Race Canada contestants Anthony Johnson, left, and Dr. James Makokis, Team Ahkameyimok, are photographed in Toronto, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

According to the Toronto City News:    The couple hoped the win and spotlight would give them a national platform to highlight issues close to their hearts.

Over weeks of intense challenges that saw them criss-cross the country, the pair donned outfits meant to call attention to specific topics: handmade red skirts and a bandana for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, blue shirts emblazoned with “Water Is Life” to show the cultural and ceremonial importance of water.

Now that they’ve been crowned the winners, the married couple — who identify as two-spirit, a term used by some Indigenous peoples to describe their gender, sexual and spiritual identity — said they want to use their fame to continue fundraising for a cultural healing centre in Alberta’s Kehewin Cree Nation.

Makokis, a family physician originally from the Saddle Creek Cree Nation in Alberta, and Johnson, a project consultant born in Arizona’s Navajo Nation, said it was important for them to use the spotlight to raise awareness.

“Representing missing and murdered Indigenous women was important because it happens, it happens and people don’t talk about it,” Johnson said.

Many Indigenous communities were matriarchal before colonization and the couple felt it was important to show support for the women leaders in their community, Makokis added.

They also wanted to show two-spirit and transgender youth “that it’s OK to be different,” he said.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.