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Windspeaker.com Books Feature Writer
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Right from the title of her latest fiction novel real ones, katherena vermette ensures true Indigenous voices are front and centre.
“I didn't want (the title) to be The Pretendian or something about the pretendians because the focus is (Michif sisters) lyn and June and on their story and them taking up the space that is trying to be taken from them,” said vermette. “It's about them. It's about the real ones.”
real ones hit the bookshelves in fall of 2024 at a time when pretendians in art and academia were being identified. Today, the topic, with the likes of lawyer Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (2024) and writer Thomas King (2025) being outed, is just as relevant.
vermette, who is Red River Métis and lives in Winnipeg, says it takes her several years to write a book and it’s “about the accumulation of things that are happening.”
That accumulation included writer Joseph Boyden (2017), academic Carrie Bourassa (2018), and singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie (2023) being found to have wrongfully claimed Indigeneity for decades.
The benefit of writing fiction, vermette says, is that she doesn’t have to focus on any specific real-life event.
“I never wanted to call out anyone or any of those situations. I wanted to talk about it with fictionalized characters and really discuss the issue as an issue and not specifically concerning…one person,” she said.
“I think (the issue) isn't on the backs of these folks who may or may not be Indigenous, and it's certainly not on the backs of all of those of us who are actually Indigenous. But I think it's about the institutions and the systems and making sure that those have checks and balances so that people can't do this.”
In real ones, lyn has a pottery studio and June is a Métis Studies professor. Their father is Métis. However, their white mother Renee claims their father’s Métis stories as her own. She changes her name to Raven Bearclaw and becomes an award-winning and grant-given artist in the Woodlands tradition. She is outed as a pretendian and lyn and June face the consequences.
vermette demonstrates compassion in how she deals with Renee, the impacts on her family members and with the topic of pretendians.
vermette laughs and says she took that approach “because I love family drama. I love gossipy stories. I love the interpersonal dynamics of situations like this.”
However, it’s much more than that.
lyn and June are angry at their mother and the blowback they personally suffer particularly on social media, but they also try to understand why Renee did what she did. The sisters’ conversation between themselves, with their father and other family members flows back and forth, focuses on their separate childhoods and experiences, and their connection to both their mother and their father.
vermette says her own relationship with “villains” such as Renee is complicated.
“I'm always interested in what they're doing, what they're thinking, kind of the whys and the hows and the motivations,” she said.
How readers respond to lyn’s and June’s discussions is up to them, vermette adds. Some may have empathy while others may be angry.
lyn and June also talk about forgiveness.
“Accountability is always something that I think…is the first step towards any real genuine forgiveness,” said vermette. “I can understand why (Renee) made the choices that she did. I don't have to agree with them. I definitely would want to stop her from doing them. But she's not this wholly bad evil person at the same time.”
vermette says feedback on real ones has varied from some readers thinking she’s too hard and others thinking she’s “way too soft.”
real ones was longlisted for the Giller Prize (2024) and was a finalist for the Governor General’s literary award (2025).
“The recognitions are always amazing because all of those jury prizes are peer reviewed…so it always feels especially thoughtful, meaningful. Writers like to write for each other and have these ongoing conversations,” said vermette. “I'm honoured.”
vermette, who is also an editor for Simon and Schuster Canada, is working on her next novel which she expects to be released in 2028.
real ones, published by Penguin Random House Canada, can be purchased at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/733933/real-ones-by-katherena-v…