Real Ones - by Katherena Vermette (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 GILLER PRIZE*

"Brilliant.... healing and eye-opening." --Michelle Porter

From the author of the nationally bestselling Strangers saga comes a heartrending story of two Michif sisters who must face their past trauma when their mother is called out for false claims to Indigenous identity.

June and her sister, lyn, are NDNs--real ones.

Lyn has her pottery artwork, her precocious kid, Willow, and the uncertain terrain of her midlife to keep her mind, heart and hands busy. June, a Métis Studies professor, yearns to uproot from Vancouver and move. With her loving partner, Sigh, June decides to buy a house in the last place on earth she imagined she'd end up: back home in Winnipeg with her family.

But then into lyn and June's busy lives a bomb drops: their estranged and very white mother, Renee, is called out as a "pretendian." Under the name (get this) Raven Bearclaw, Renee had topped the charts in the Canadian art world for winning awards and recognition for her Indigenous-style work.

The news is quickly picked up by the media and sparks an enraged online backlash. As the sisters are pulled into the painful tangle of lies their mother has told, searing memories from their unresolved childhood trauma come rippling to the surface.

In prose so powerful it could strike a match, real ones is written with the same signature wit and heart on display in The Break, The Strangers and The Circle. An energetic, probing and ultimately hopeful story, real ones pays homage to the long-fought, hard-won battles of Michif (Métis) people to regain ownership of their identity and the right to say who is and isn't Métis.

Review Quotes

One of:
Indigo's Top Ten Best Books of 2024
Winnipeg Free Press' Best Books of 2024
One of CBC's "Best Canadian fiction of 2024"

"With the same artistry and open heart that vermette's character lyn practices in throwing and displaying her pottery, vermette has crafted real ones to explore--in real time--the traumatic outward rippling effect of a mother's ethnic fraud on all her relations."
--Michelle Good, author of Five Little Indians and Truth Telling

"A brilliant novel, infused with anger and rich with empathy. In real ones, katherena vermette holds a mirror up to an issue that Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities are all grappling with--the rise of false claims to Indigenous identity. Vermette tells this story like no one else can. By focusing on the relationship between sisters June and lyn (who are Métis on their father's side) following the public discovery of their own mother's false claims, vermette offers up an understanding of the way the phenomenon reverberates at the personal and political levels. A healing and eye-opening story, real ones is a must-read."
--Michelle Porter, author of A Grandmother Begins the Story

"With conviction and compassion, vermette shines a light on pretendianism--motivations, tangled emotions, far-reaching consequences--and re-centres collective Métis identity and sovereignty."
--Chantal Fiola, author of Returning to Ceremony: Spirituality in Manitoba Métis Communities

"Through lithe prose that occasionally slips into poetry, vermette's refreshing novel shines in its biting satire of white hubris and its conclusions about the slipperiness of identity."
--The Walrus

"[A] warm, incredibly timely and at times rather funny novel."
--Chatelaine

"Timely. . . . vermette's talent for exploring tough topics with passion, humour and hope helps the story unfold. Through the family's experience, tributes are paid to the hard-fought battles of Michif (Métis) people who have regained and maintained ownership of their identity. A deep understanding of art and a love of language abounds in vermette's careful prose. Throughout the sad story, moments of simple beauty shine. vermette is passionate about her ancestry and inserts lived experience and cultural awareness through family discussions. . . . Though real ones explores a lot of anger caused by the pretendian theme, there's heartfelt experience from the daughters' perspectives [and] conflicted feelings about Renee. . . . That core struggle makes real ones so very real."
--Winnipeg Free Press

About the Author

katherena vermette (she/her) is a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Born in Winnipeg, her Michif roots on her paternal side run deep in St. Boniface, St. Norbert, and beyond. Her maternal side is Mennonite from the Altona and Rosenfeld area (Treaty 1). Her first book, North End Love Songs (Muses' Company), won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry. Her novels The Break (House of Anansi), The Strangers (Hamish Hamilton), and The Circle (Hamish Hamilton) were all national bestsellers and won multiple literary awards. Her work for children and young adults includes a picture book, The Girl and the Wolf (Theytus), and graphic novels, A Girl Called Echo, Vol. 1-4 (Highwater)--a special omnibus edition of the series was released in Fall 2023. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia and an honourary Doctor of Letters from the University of Manitoba. katherena lives with her kids--fur and human--in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.