Exiled From The Tundra

Moments before meeting his students, Patrick Hanlon learns that one of the students committed suicide that summer. Finding himself thrust into a situation that he is not prepared for he is at first paralyzed by the challenge. He adapts to life in the community and comes to realize that the dramatic social and technological changes that have transformed life for his students are one of the main causes for the suicide and other social problems such as solvent and drug abuse, and family violence. Over the course of the two years they spend together he and his students gradually build a trusting dialogue as the students struggle with the question, “Why are we here?”, a question that he strives to answer as honestly and meaningfully as possible each time it is posed.


Despite facing further challenges in the classroom and in the community, he remains committed to his students and the goal of making the time they share in the classroom meaningful.  In the end he learns his own lessons about the Inuit, life in the Arctic and the struggle to survive.