Spreading calm in troubled lives: Yoga grows in Nunavut

When Kerry Lawson starting coming to Iqaluit more than a decade ago, the yoga teacher arrived in a community burdened with lateral violence — a residual effect from the legacy of residential schools. She thought yoga could be a useful tool for those struggling with their own emotions, or those of others. 

"When somebody practices yoga or goes to yoga classes, they notice that they start to become very relaxed and they maybe won't become as depressed or unhappy as they used to," Lawson says. "People who would naturally become angry, they're not becoming angry as easily anymore, so it really helps calm you down, calm your mind and helps you conduct yourself better in everyday life so you sleep better, you are healthier, happier."

Now, Nunavut has begun to embrace yoga. Instructors like Lawson have travelled around the territory giving classes, and Nunavut's first studio, Saimavik, opened in 2014. 

Christine Lamothe, who runs the Saimavik studio, says that only 1 in 5 of her students are Inuit, a number that she hopes will grow.

"I think that anything new to the North, to the Arctic, to Inuit, especially, it needs to be met with collaboration and understanding that evolves over time over relationship building because of the history of colonization," says Lamothe. "The history of other cultures coming in here."

• Iqaluit welcomes first yoga studio, Saimavik

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Lawson also approached her teachings with collaboration in mind. Early on, she travelled to Arviat, where she met with elders to compare the guiding principles of yoga with the eight guiding principles of the Inuit.

"They said it's the same as our culture," she says. "You might call it yoga. You might say it's from India, but those values are the same as us and because of that they gave me their blessing to continue to teach it in the schools and teach it to the youth."

The collaborative approach has worked, and Lawson and Lamothe are now teaching local people how to train others in yoga in hopes of spreading the calm to other communities.

"I've had kids come up to me in the grocery story and I've had young girls that I taught for years," said Lawson, who's taught in the territory's women's shelters, jails and schools. "They call me 'yoga lady.' 

"'Yoga lady, I want to tell you that in my house when the screaming and hitting starts, I go under my bed and I do the breathing exercises and I'm not scared. I feel calm.'"