{"id":46279,"date":"2017-08-21T16:30:42","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T20:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=46279"},"modified":"2019-01-25T14:10:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:10:26","slug":"brock-alum-raising-awareness-of-inuit-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/08\/brock-alum-raising-awareness-of-inuit-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock alum raising awareness of Inuit culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>For many Niagara residents, spending a summer week \u2018up north\u2019 means driving a few hours to nearby cottage country. But for Brock alumnus Joe Pelino (BSc \u201991), that summer trek north means flying almost 2,400 kilometres to Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Every summer for the past 14 years, Pelino has gone to Iqaluit to help coach the Nunavut Stars during a four-day ice hockey camp. The program draws 80 to 120 players aged five to 18 from various Nunavut hamlets.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Welland native grew up on the ice \u2014 later joining the Brock Badgers men\u2019s hockey team in his university years.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Pelino\u2019s brother Mike \u2014 the Badgers\u2019 head coach from 1987-97 \u2014 who introduced him to the prospect of coaching in Nunavut after helping with a clinic in the Arctic in 1992. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother had such an amazing experience. When he returned home, he encouraged me to get involved,\u201d Pelino says.<\/span><\/p>\n

He began by helping with weekend clinics a few times a year teaching children improved skating and stickhandling techniques. That eventually evolved into the Nunavut Stars summer hockey camp, which Pelino helped start in 2002.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Joe

During his coaching sessions in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Brock Alumnus Joe Pelino works with Inuit hockey players using core ball training.<\/p><\/div>\n

He recalls one of his first trips up north, when he met then 10-year-old Jesse Mike. \u201cShe was determined to develop women\u2019s hockey in Nunavut and we could see from a young age that she was a strong leader,\u201d Pelino says. \u201cNow, she is the camp director focused on developing the camp and providing positive experiences for participants that include fitness training and traditional Inuit games.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pelino says it\u2019s more than hockey that keeps him going back year after year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to Nunavut changed how I think about Canada and even how I think about family,\u201d he says. In his first year, he was often asked by the community\u2019s Elders about bringing his children on future trips.<\/span><\/p>\n

His son and two daughters have since joined him in Nunavut multiple times, where they\u2019ve participated in traditional activities such as seal hunting and eating foods such as caribou and Arctic char.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also spent time with community Elders and knowledge holders learning about traditional Inuit ways of life, the Inuktitut language, the environment and Arctic security,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

These new understandings expanded Pelino\u2019s desire to support Inuit communities, beyond his contributions to ice hockey.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has begun producing a film project called <\/span>Tuusaqtuut<\/span><\/i>, which \u201cdocuments the experiences of 40 Inuit Elders who share their knowledge of life on the land in Canada\u2019s Arctic region.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One goal of <\/span>Tuusaqtuut<\/span><\/i> is to ensure the Elders\u2019 knowledge is preserved and shared with future generations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on the context, the word <\/span>Tuusaqtuut <\/span><\/i>has different meanings,\u201d Pelino explains. \u201cIt represents the sharing of knowledge and the Inuit moon, which takes place in the month of November. This is important because it represents the start of the season of ice when the land freezes and the people travel to visit other families and share good news of their hunting trips.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Pelino typically spends mid-August in Nunavut for the hockey camp, this is the first summer in 16 years that he\u2019s not travelling to Iqaluit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDue to construction on the Arnaitok hockey arena \u2014 one of only a few NHL-sized ice surface in Nunavut \u2014 the camp was cancelled this year,\u201d Pelino says. \u201cWe are all looking forward to the arena renovations being finished and seeing the camp run again next summer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To provide insight into the enriching culture Pelino has come to learn about during his many trips to Nunavut, Pelino has loaned his extensive Inuit soapstone sculpture collection to Brock. It\u00a0is now on display in Brock University\u2019s James A. Gibson Library until Aug. 31.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joe Pelino is a doctor of Chiropractic and Sports Medicine. He is the official chiropractor of the National Hockey League Alumni Association. His practice is currently located at Energy Fitness Studio in St. Catharines. He also continues his role as executive director and chiropractor for the Nunavut Stars Hockey School and director of treatment services for GranFondo Canada (Banff, Whistler and Niagara Falls locations).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Inuit

Brock alumnus Joe Pelino’s collection of soapstone carvings depicting Inuit culture are on display in Brock’s James A. Gibson LIbrary.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many Niagara residents, spending a summer week \u2018up north\u2019 means driving a few hours to nearby cottage country. But for Brock alumnus Joe Pelino (BSc \u201991), that summer trek north means flying almost 2,400 kilometres to Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":46281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,6833,1,4,58],"tags":[5521,28,703,5709,5710],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52329,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46279\/revisions\/52329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}