To affect change, we need to put our ideas and dreams on the table. We gather around, look at and sample the feast, we communicate, debate, and educate to relate change from a predominantly white supremacist, de-spiritualised, racist appropriation of yoga and dance today, in Britain as well as the former Empires.

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

James Baldwin

What is colonialism? We are interested in looking at coloniality and exploring de-linking with that state of mind. Who benefits? Have no doubt colonialism is a violent duet of power and ownership, and results in destruction, pain, loss, and trauma, wherever it lays its methodology. What is the picture of yoga in Britain now? We ask, ‘who owns yoga” We also ask, “What is yoga?” Who is yoga for? post-colonial yoga is a global diaspora, it is re-appearing in many forms and is, some would say, a far reach from its origins. The movement of black and brown bodies has been owned, shackled, and forbidden, where are we now?

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.

Audrey Lorde

In more recent times, meditation, mindfulness, wellness, and mental health are on most tongues in society here in Britain as well as other parts of the world but not all. We here in Britain can speak more freely about these therapies and a more realised spiritual pursuit is emerging, one that is compassionate, respectful and one that does not appropriate or harm. The business of being spiritual is thriving, along with veganism and countless yoga studios and retreats for the usual suspects, at the same time there are many communities, like us, that are gathering to make change, to create more accessibility and insist on equal rights. If you are on the same page, we would love to hear from you.

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AMA SU

As a writer and researcher in the field of sacred movement and sacred sound, yoga, and meditation I pen a blog as well as journals and articles for your perusal.

My area of particular interest and research is the history of the colonization of yoga and the diasporic, emergence of contemporary yoga in Britain. Looking at societal impact and social justice. Are we losing the spirit of yoga? Whose yoga is it anyway?

I have been teaching yoga for over 30 years, Founder, Director of Amasu Yoga School and have had the good fortune to meet some wonderful students.

Amanda Suzanne Evans
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