This article is meant to be a sort of case study, where the case in question is a book of poetry by Marilyn Dumont, and the study focuses on contemporary indigenous realities as represented by Dumont in her poems. A Really Good Brown Girl is a relatively short collection of poetry published in 1996 by Brick Books. It was interesting to see how much of contemporary indigenous reality will be identifiable in the poems collected in a single book by an author who is widely anthologised but not overwhelmingly popular in Canada. A close reading of her poetry proves that Dumont touches on many aspects of Me´tis contemporary reality
such as the corruption of their culture, the problem of Indian identity, the relationship between the First Nations and the White people, living conditions, gender roles, and the school system. Support for Dumont’s poetic rendering of the realities of indigenous people is found in other critical works. A conclusion may be drawn that social criticism finds its expression in the poetry which is personal and yet a form of resistance writing.

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