In the early 1960s, the Canadian government launched an experimental programme to take academically promising Inuit children from their homes to be educated in Canada’s cities.

The aim was to produce administrators who could spearhead development in the north of the country, but the project came at a great cost for the children and their families.

Adamie Kalingo, born and raised in Nunavik, Northern Quebec, speaks to Maria Margaronis about being taken away at the age of 12 in 1964, his years living with a white family in Ottawa, and his eventual return.

(Photo: Adamie Kalingo in 1963. Credit: Maureen Bus)