Jordin Tootoo, Attima Hadlari to be inducted into Nunavut sport hall of fame

After months of planning, the Nunavut Sport Federation is launching its new Nunavut Sport and Recreation Hall of Fame, with a ceremony planned in Iqaluit this fall.

The late Attima Hadlari drum-dances at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s community feast in Cambridge Bay in 2017. (File photo by Jane George)

The two inaugural inductees will be former NHL right winger Jordin Tootoo, from Rankin Inlet, and late Inuit games athlete Attima Hadlari.

“We have a virtual hall of fame set up,” said federation operations manager Scott Schultz Friday in an email. “Moving forward we are hoping to have a physical hall of fame, but we have not found a space yet.”

The hall of fame could eventually be spread across Nunavut’s three regions, he added, with the Kivalliq, Kitikmeot and Qikiqtaaluk each getting their own installation.

From 2003 to 2017, Tootoo, played 723 games for the Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils and Chicago Blackhawks. He racked up 65 goals, 96 assists and 1,010 penalty minutes during that time.

Hadlari was an Arctic sports athlete from Cambridge Bay who mastered the sealskin whip and went on to coach and officiate for young athletes participating in traditional Inuit games.

He also served in the first Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit, which gives expertise in how to apply Inuit traditional knowledge in government, from 2003 to 2005.

The pair are scheduled to be inducted during the Sport and Recreation Awards Gala at Aqsarniit Hotel on Oct. 3.

The federation, a non-profit that supports the territory’s sport organizations, is working with Tootoo and both inductees’ families to try to have them in attendance at the gala, Schultz said.