i love kanaalaq

Haven't read the book but I'd suggest they weren't "involved." Mowat's book has "Brother" in the title, so we'd expect brotherhood and sisterhood to be the driving motif. Ditto the movie - hero begins as a nasty semi-racist, telling the old Aleut alsoholic that "I'm not your brother" but by the film's end he has achieved a brotherly status with the Eskimo girl, who in fact, calls him "my brother." So the theme seems to be about overcoming selfishness and racism and growing into a familial relationship with those you previously regarded as not being kin.