If you think orientation is a challenge for the average out-of-town student, consider the adjustment Joanie Brown and Andy Tugak faced when they moved to Winnipeg, population 633,451, from tiny Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, population 2,358, to attend Red River College — with eight kids in tow.

Andy Tugak and Joanie Brown, back left, moved their family to Winnipeg so their daughter Samantha, rear, in black shirt, could attend Red River College.

Andy Tugak and Joanie Brown, back left, moved their family to Winnipeg so their daughter Samantha, rear, in black shirt, could attend Red River College.

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The family was turned away several times by landlords because of its size but eventually the college helped them find a place, says Ms. Brown, 38, who is completing Grade 12 in the Biindigen college-preparatory program at Red River with her spouse.

Their daughter, Samantha, is also attending the school, studying aboriginal self-government administration.

Along for the ride are Samantha's three-year-old twins, Emily and Amy-Lee, and her siblings Andy Jr., 15, Amanda, 12, Tommy, 9, and Tania, 6. Sister Maani, 14, will soon join them from Rankin Inlet, where she is living with aunts and uncles while she adjusts to the idea of leaving her hometown.

Dad takes classes, too

The story begins in Winnipeg in 2005 with Samantha trying to complete Grade 12 at a local high school. But she "couldn't adjust," she says, so her parents — along with all the kids — joined her.

The first year, her father enrolled in Red River's introduction-to-trades program. The next year, he took a mechanics course while Samantha turned to the college's Biindigen program to complete her high school education.

"The Biindigen program saved my life," she says. "It helped me realize [that] anything I set my mind to, I could do. And if my parents didn't come down in 2005, I wouldn't have realized that." Nor would she have pursued her education without them, she admits.

Meanwhile, her mother got in on the act, too, enrolling in the Biindigen program this year with a goal of beginning a two-year diploma course in office information. Her dad, who is 42, is completing his Grade 12 requirements in the Biindigen program and is considering attending the Marine Institute of Memorial University in Newfoundland, which would qualify him for a job working on ships with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Daughter seeks degree

He's not alone in his continuing quest for education — and new adventures.

When 20-year-old Samantha (who also goes by her Inuit name, Sakitnaaq) graduates next year, she plans to move on to a three-year self-government degree program at the University of Winnipeg, with the goal of working in administration in the Nunavut government, and then perhaps running for office.

Moving the family to Winnipeg "was a huge decision but a good one," Ms. Brown says. "We weren't really doing anything in Rankin, so we came down here to try and get our education and do something with our lives."

Most of the jobs she was interested in in Rankin Inlet required a Grade 12 education, Ms. Brown says, "so that's one reason I'm trying to get that."

'Turned her life around'

She hopes to land a job in administration back home when she completes her studies, though she's not sure when that will be. By the time she, her husband and Samantha have finished school, she expects her younger children will be entering college in Winnipeg, and she doesn't want to leave them behind.

In fact, the family has become so committed to education that when a cousin "got mixed up" and didn't know what to do with her life, Ms. Brown encouraged her to apply for the Biindigen program. She got in, completed it, and "now she's in the two-year self-government course," she says. "It totally turned her life around."

Not that the changes in their lives haven't been difficult.

"Adjusting was pretty hard in the beginning," says Ms. Brown. "We were homesick a lot of the first few months, and it was difficult just trying to get around from place to place, but we learned fast."

Imagine, she explains, moving from a town where the kids could venture out on their own, walking only minutes to school or visits with aunts and uncles. There was no worry they'd be "kidnapped or get lost," she says.

"Now we have to bring them wherever they have to go, or want to go. They're not allowed to go out on their own." That's been a huge adjustment for them, she says; during the first year they cried often and wanted to move back.

Family faced higher costs

"I'm always thinking of where they are and when they're coming home, and if they're not home within 15 minutes of when I expect them, I get worried," admits Ms. Brown.

This year the family moved to two apartments, a floor apart, and the adults take turns caring for the children, says Samantha, while the other two study.

The family and other aboriginal students face financial challenges as well.

Living in Winnipeg is more costly, says Ms. Brown; family members must travel by bus instead of walking, for instance. Entertainment also costs more; family members used to simply visit with nearby friends and family.

But support from Red River has helped them immensely, she says. The college organizes family nights with movies and other special events. One of the most successful for the Tugak-Brown family was a fashion show of Inuit clothes the school held "to honour our culture," says Samantha.

Aboriginals are an "untapped resource," says Marti Ford, the dean of aboriginal education at Red River. "Look at the demographics. The growth in the aboriginal population is much higher than the rest, and with baby boomers retiring, there's no reason not to work with aboriginal communities."

Further, their communities are booming. "There's a lot of construction going on in the north in Nunavut, and dam building in northern Manitoba. Aboriginal people are saying this is our territory and we want to be working."

Ms. Ford is proud of her school's successes. One native student recently graduated from a two-year computer program and landed her first job in Yellowknife, at $50,000 a year.

Success is measured not just in jobs, she says, but also in how education changes the lives of students. "If a student's on social assistance and then they can go out and get a job, that's a success. When they never thought they would ever do anything successful, that's a success," she says.

"That's what we try to do."

Special to The Globe and Mail