ABSTRACT
How can cultural embodied knowledge heal us from relational and systemic violence? How can yoga be re-rooted as that healing tool for individual and collective liberation? For many years, yoga has been grounded in underlying spiritual and healing components. However, in mainstream context, the historical and ongoing dynamics of Western asana-focused yoga play a role in reinforcing historical and contemporary cultural trauma through cultural erasure and commodification. This autoethnography explores the experiences of a Haitian-American yogini practicing yoga sutra’s yamas and niyamas (Adele, 2009; Bryant, 2005) through the lens of radical healing frameworks (Ginwright, 2015; French et al., 2019) and decolonizing perspectives (e.g., Yellow Bird, 2008). Yoga philosophy is illustrated through a contemplative healing justice community, known as Black Lotus Collective. Liberatory experiences include practicing accountability for non-violence toward self and others, compassionately witnessing self and relational expression, preserving energy through cultural offerings, cleansing through rhythmic meditation, surrendering oppressive habits as ancestors-in-training, and activating cultural resiliency and integrity through sustained practice. A call to decolonizing yoga is centered in discussion of considering culturally and politically contextualized practice that returns yoga to its transformative roots. Reclaiming yoga as an ethical embodied practice for addressing oppression is discussed as an example of generative future building and radical presence.
