Arviat high schoolers celebrate graduation with tundra 'walkabout'

The high school in Arviat, Nunavut, is set to graduate 40 students this year and last week, the graduates reflected ontheir accomplishment in a unique way.

On Thursday night at midnight, the students, along with some of their parents and wilderness guides in the community bused 13 kilometres out of town and walked back over the tundra.

Romeo Fournier, the school's principal, says the event came together after hearing from students that they wanted something engaging and meaningful to end their high school careers.

"The idea behind it was to have the students really participate in something that represented their journey both literally and figuratively, so 13 kilometres represents each year that the students were in school, from kindergarten to grade 12," Fournier said.

Students met at John ArnalukjuakSchool, where they wrote down their fears about the future and challenges they'd faced during school.At their starting location out of town, they threw the papers with their worries into a fire they'd built.

They began their walk around 1 a.m. The timing for the walk both made the trip safer and more reflective, Fournier said.

Since it's colder at night, the ground was firmer and easier to walk on, but it was also quieter and students could reflect under the stars and, possibly, northern lights.

"Some of them, literally, on the way, they tripped and stumbled along the way, but they had friends beside them to pick them up and to give them a hand on their journey," Fournier said.

Fournier said some of the students were nervous about making the trip, but they all made it back around 7 a.m. and enjoyed a big breakfast at the school.

The walk was partly inspired by communication the students had during the year with a group of high school students in Australia.

The students were sent a video explaining Indigenous practices in Australia including the rite of passage known as a walkabout.

Reaching out to students around the worldis part of the school's mission, says Fournier, which is to have students become contributing, responsible global citizens.

At the beginning of the school year 37 students were slated to graduate, but the school starteda pilot program to support students and bring students back to school.

• Pilot program at Arviat high school boosts student attendance, emotional stability

Fournier says the ESTEEM program, which stands for empowering students through elders, education and mentorship, helped support threestudents, who were close to graduating complete their studies.

This broughtthe total number of graduates to 40, which is about four more students than graduated last year.