🪶 Building Indigenous Connections in Education

Lionel University | The What If Education Challenge Series

Education as Connection,
Not Containment

At Lionel University, our approach to Exercise Science extends beyond physiology—it’s about human performance in context.

Every culture has engineered movement as a form of resilience, expression, and balance with the world around it. Indigenous systems of sport and ceremony demonstrate this truth: the body is not separate from the environment; it responds to it.

In honoring that perspective, we ask an essential question at the core of the What If Education Challenge:

“What if education began with remembrance—learning not just how we move, but why we move?”

Reimagining Curriculum Through Collaboration

In the spirit of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we envision new pathways for collaboration and learning—where Indigenous frameworks aren’t just case studies, but living, guiding systems within higher education.

These imagined courses serve as a challenge to the academic status quo—a “what if” blueprint that invites educators to reframe curriculum design around inclusion, reciprocity, and ancestral knowledge.

In a brightly lit modern office space a diverse team of enthusiastic individuals gathers around a large whiteboard animatedly sketching ideas and brai-1-1-1

1 “Innovation begins with curiosity.”

In a sunlit workshop a small group of diverse individuals collaborates passionately around a large wooden table immersed in a handson cocreation momen-2

2 “Action connects thought to impact.”

In a vibrant outdoor setting a group of enthusiastic students and educators passionately present their innovative ideas beneath a sprawling oak tree T-2

3 “When learning is shared, change lasts.”

Potential Curriculum Additions

📝 EXS 340: Indigenous Movement Systems & Biomechanics

Analyze traditional games through the lens of modern motion science. Explore how balance, agility, and endurance were developed not through equipment or technology, but through ceremony, terrain, and purpose.

From lacrosse to stickball, from haka to hoop dance—movement was once medicine.

📝 EXS 415: Environmental Physiology of Traditional Sports

Study heat, cold, and altitude adaptation across global Indigenous practices.

Investigate the biomechanics of endurance among the Rarámuri, the cold-resilience of Inuit competitors, and the heat tolerance of Pacific Island paddlers.

The environment was humanity’s first gym. Indigenous athletes trained where science is now catching up.

📝 ETH 310: Cultural Competency in Coaching & Health

Explore the ethics of consultation, representation, and collaboration with Indigenous communities.

Learn frameworks for designing programs that honor—not appropriate—traditional knowledge.

Coaching begins with listening. Health begins with humility.

Lionel Global Micro-Courses

While Lionel University’s programs anchor learning in the science of performance, Lionel Global opens that knowledge to the world.

Our micro-course vision extends the same challenge across borders and disciplines—bringing Indigenous teachings into global movement literacy.

Indigenous Foundations of Team Sport (Haudenosaunee & Choctaw)

Understanding the roots of teamwork, diplomacy, and communal healing through play.
Endurance on the Land (Rarámuri, Inuit, Dene)

Exploring endurance as ecology—how movement synchronizes with environment, culture, and survival.
Ocean Performance (Surfing & Outrigger)

Examining balance, rhythm, and flow as lessons from the water that shape modern aquatic training.

Education is strongest when it reflects every voice at the table.

Partnership begins with presence. Lionel invites educators, community leaders, and organizations to join the table—not as guests, but as collaborators shaping the future of learning together. Through shared dialogue, co-designed challenges, and cultural exchange, we can build programs that honor tradition, amplify Indigenous voices, and inspire new generations of learners.

Join the Table →

The What If Reflection

These modules do not yet exist—but they could.

They represent the bridge between ancestral wisdom and modern research, between the stories that built human movement and the sciences that now measure it.

What if the next evolution of Exercise Science wasn’t about pushing limits—but remembering roots?

Through the What If Education Challenge, Lionel University invites educators, students, and institutions to lift the standard of learning by grounding it in connection—to land, to people, and to history.

Join the What If Education Challenge

Partner with Lionel to co-create meaningful education initiatives that connect culture, science, and community.

Join the Conversation

🪶 Take the What If Education Challenge → lionel.edu/partner-with-us

🌎 Learn more about Indigenous movement traditions → global.Lionel.edu

🎓 Explore Exercise Science Programs → lionel.edu/programs-overview

Building Indigenous Connections in Education: The What If Education Challenge Series

🪶 Building Indigenous Connections in Education

Education as Connection,
Not Containment

“What if education began with remembrance—learning not just how we move, but why we move?”