The Healing Within the Medicine Game: Co-Cultural Theory and Indigenous Identity in the Sport of Baaga'adowewin - Lacrosse

Presenter(s)

Alex Rivera

Abstract or Description

The United States has a long history of international migration, with people from all over the world coming to live in America. Although there is a dominant cultural society within the United States, it also includes many cultural groups, referred to as microcultures. To better understand microcultural interaction and identity, I will explore co-cultural theory within the context of lacrosse. Co-cultural theory, according to Mark Orbe in Communication: A First Look at Communication Theory, explores “ways members of marginalized groups interact with members of groups in the dominant culture-people” (Griffin, 2022, p. 364). At the macrocultural level, lacrosse is often and stereotypically perceived as a country club sport—a hobby to keep rich, white kids from getting bored (Masslive.com, 1/17/2025). At the microcultural level, traditional Indigenous lacrosse of the Great Lakes (Ojibwe) area manifests a variety of nuances in meaning. In indigenous cultures, values are interconnected, and lacrosse is known as a medicine game, which includes all aspects of health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. The medicine game also stresses decolonization, which emphasizes the communication of traditions and practices that the United States government once prohibited. This project used the methodological approaches of autoethnography and grounded theory to explicate the co-cultural communication of active group participation in movements and games from non-dominant cultural perspectives and also to study a co-cultural game—the game of traditional lacrosse. The analysis reveals stories, rituals, and metaphors that are vital to the construction of indigenous identity. 

Mentor

Dr. John Perlich