In this workshop, we will dive into the dialogue surrounding “decolonising yoga”, in both a Western and South Asian context. Grounding ourselves in history, culture, philosophy and politics, we will start to build the foundations of an embodied social justice practice within the practice of yoga. We will explore:

• A brief history of yoga in South Asia and an introduction to Sanskrit, the ‘language of yoga’

• The rewriting of this history: Sanskritization & Brahminization and the absorption of non-Brahminical traditions into Hindu Brahminism

• A critical examination of caste and language in yoga, and the pervasive impact of caste in South Asia and the West.

• How yoga and spirituality are weaponised within colonial, imperial, white supremacist and nationalist systems and governance

• Yoga as a tool of liberation, social justice and resistance 

• Spiritual bypassing and white washing of yoga, and the difference between appropriation and appreciation, claiming and reclaiming 

We will move through this content in intellectual and cognitive capacities, whilst also grounding in other somatic and embodied processing. Somatic explorations will include;

• Acknowledging Country 

• Noticing and sitting with discomfort and tension

• Moving from curiosity and intrigue 

• Finding a liberatory, congruent and expansive yoga practice

• Utilising less known yogic practices, like pratyāhāra, yama (with a focus on ahimsa) and niyama (with a focus on svādhyāya). 

This workshop will not include

• An āsana practice

• A prāṇāyāma practice

This workshop is for all who are interested in expanding their awareness and embodiment of decolonial yoga practice, and have foundational understandings of colonialism, imperialism and white supremacy. This workshop is for all cultures and races. Please come with the intention of learning, listening and expansion.