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Elder perishes in cabin fire
Clyde River mourns loss of Lay minister and Piqqusilirivvik instructor Peter Paneak

Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Saturday, June 24, 2017

KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER
Clyde River elder Peter Paneak, who turned 83 March 13, was where he most liked to be when he died - his family's cabin outside of Clyde River. The elder was found June 18, just after 8:30 p.m., in the cabin destroyed by fire about 65 km from Clyde River, according to the news release from RCMP.

NNSL photograph

Peter Paneak and Regilie Paneak head out on the land last summer, as seen from the kitchen window by daughter Reesie Churchill. This week the family mourns the loss of their father Peter at the cabin the weekend of June 18, while still mourning the loss of their mother Regilie to cancer in January. - photo courtesy Reesie Churchill

A hunter all his life, Paneak would often go out to one of the family's cabins on his own.

"They had four cabins in different places. The newest one isn't really completed yet," said daughter Reesie Churchill.

Paneak died in the cabin where the family went berry picking, quite far away from town.

"He liked to go out to be alone on the land. A couple of times a year, he would go out and do that. Just go be by himself. He liked having his alone time. It was not unusual for him to be alone in a cabin for a few days," said Churchill.

"He's done that all his life. I guess to take a break from everything. He's always been busy. "

Churchill was at home in Iqaluit when local church members came to inform her of her father's death. It's a double blow for the large family, who lost their mother Regilie to cancer in January.

"He was of the generation where they only travelled by dog team to hunt and travel. And when they stopped in the winter time they would build iglus and live in iglus. He's from that generation," said Churchill, who remembers her father telling her as the first garbage driver in Clyde, he'd pick up Clyde's garbage by dog team in the 60s.

"One time he was picking up garbage, there were just a few houses, it took him all day when his dogs were in heat," she recalled.

The family, with 10 biological children and seven adopted children, would spend spring to fall on the land.

"We lived on the land, on and off. We'd leave in May and not come back until October," said Churchill. A Nunavut Teacher Education Program graduate herself, she says her father had always been a linguist and was passionate about Inuktitut, and often teaching residents of Clyde the modern way of writing using finals.

"Most elders don't use the finals and he was really good at writing using finals," she said, adding he also knew some French.

Paneak was a lay minister all his adult life, as well as an instructor at the Piqqusilirivvik Inuit Cultural Learning Centre since 2011.

"All the staff and students greatly valued his teaching. He brought so much knowledge and experience to our programs, the students always commented on how much they enjoyed listening to his stories," said Piqqusilirivvik's Shari Fox Gearheard.

"He was especially passionate about teaching Inuktitut language and he was our go-to expert on anything related to Inuktitut terminology and language. He never hesitated to share his knowledge when he was asked and he was kind and welcoming. All of us at Piqqusilirivvik will miss him very, very much."

Ilisaqsivik Society staff brought family members out to the cabin to say their goodbyes.

"There wasn't very much left of dad. Most of him became ashes. It was really, really hard," said Churchill. "I'd just went there with my dad less than a month ago to go clean out my mum's personal belongings."

But something does remain of her father, who was an avid recorder. Churchill says she now has his writings, as well as videos of elders - Paneak was a part of a group of elder who frequently gathered over the years.

"He always recorded in Inuktitut what happened in his life and what was happening to my mum. So there's lots of notes. I have my own personal archive to work on for the next few years - it's all his adult life, all his information. I think there's a whole mountain of valuable information that he had written," said Churchill.

Funeral arrangements had not yet been made, as Paneak must be legally identified via the coroner's office.

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