Powerful and Troubling

Names such as Thomas King, Tomson Highway, Richard Wagamese and Joseph Boyden have entered the pantheon of Canadian writing in recent years. The relative absence of self-identifying female First Nations authors, with exceptions such as Eden Robinson and a few others, is unsurprising given the historical marginalization of Native women in Canadian culture and society. And if First Nations females are sparse in the country’s literary scene, Métis ones like Lisa Bird-Wilson are practically invisible. Thus a story collection like Just Pretending, which gives voice to a largely ignored aspect of the Canadian experience, has significance beyond its literary merits.

These stories tackle themes of motherhood, generational dysfunction and the double subjugation of indigenous female characters. This is a parade of victimized and marginalized individuals who are usually young and poor...