Exile

Zacharias Kunuk tackles the subject of the High Arctic Relocation from an Inuit point of view in the documentary Exile In 1953 Inuit families were forcibly relocated to the uninhabited and inhospitable high arctic 1500 kilometres north of their traditional homeland of Nunavik in northern Québec The goal of the move was to extend Canadian claims of sovereignty to Ellesmere Island As a result Inuit people were forced to endure the pain of families torn apart and many years of hardship With devastating firstperson accounts of survival the trail of broken promises and shameful practices of the government and the RCMP this powerful documentary captures the longstanding effects of these events from the perspectives of the people who were forced to endure them