Dorothea Mackellar - My Country - 1908

Most of us have felt this love like an ache these past few months as we watched the fires rage and destroy our beautiful forests and animals, communities and homes. Many of us have felt that ache for much longer actually, as we watch Australia sucked dry of water for big agriculture, fracking and through positively insane water management strategies.

The necessity for community to draw close and support those who are suffering has been keenly felt by yogis across this nation. Below we tell 2 yoga teacher stories and next time we'll share thoughts from 20 yoga studios who have curated responses to the crisis of the bushfires. If you are a yoga teacher who has been supporting the bushfire efforts please let us know.

The direct devastation is best explained by Amrei in her facebook post a couple of days after fires ripped through Cobargo.

BUT FIRST . TODAY IS NATIONAL APOLOGY DAY SO PLEASE SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS NEWSLETTER TO EXPLORE THIS.

Yes, the studio has burnt to the ground so there won’t be another class at 68 Princes Highway.
It’s just a building with things inside.
My family is safe and Ben even managed to save the old house and shed at Waterloo.

But this little building was the only space in my life I ever had that felt like “mine” (not that I owned the building ).. that I felt I had created; That felt like my home and my safe place and it was filled with all the things I love.
All my favourite street clothes, all my yoga clothes,all my yoga towels, yoga mats , yoga books, the $3000 worth of stock I just got in before Xmas etc etc but most of all the feeling of happiness and pride every time I saw my little red front doors and Bikram’s quote on the front window...

Yesterday, when I saw the first photo of the burnt studio, I felt like this meant the end of my studio owner days... like a sign or something... but the when Noah and I were at the rescue centre in Bermagui more and more of my students who had also most likely lost their homes came over and said things like :”We have to rebuild your studio .”
And then one of them said: “You have to re- open the studio so we have a place to heal from all this!”
I cried many tears yesterday .. partly sad, thinking that I had lost all my possessions for the 4th time in my life, part of me scared about having lost the means for our family income, part of me because I thought Rob’s life was in danger because of me, part of me because I felt selfish knowing how many people are so much more worth of then me and part of me in awe and gratitude about the kind people in our community like Sean and Ally taking us to their home in Bermi and hosting and feeding us so very very selfless and generous in times where they don’t even know if they have enough food to feed themselves .My phone and internet are dead if you have been trying to reach me but we are safely back at Waterloo for now and Ben’s phone is mostly working.
Because I never expected a fire to go through the Main Street of Cobargo I had no insurance on anything but I promise I will do my very best to build us a new Bikram Yoga Sapphire Coast!

Addendum : Amrei’s students started a fundraising campaign ...contributions to date at $40,433!!

If you feel moved to contribute : https://www.gofundme.com/f/bikram-yoga-sapphire-coast-community-fire-appeal

Tapas, like most Sanskrit words, means many things to many people. Most simply, tapas is heat, specifically the kind of heat generated by certain yogic practices, or a certain approach to yogic practice. In the early scriptures, which still shape most yoga practiced today, tapas refers to the burning off of impurities. Perhaps we can see this season of fires as having done just that – moved us towards a clearer way of thinking and started to heal sick country.

Yoga has the capacity to bring us back into a state of connection with ourselves as part of nature, its rhythms and unfathomable beauty and mystery. Our practice allows us to come back into the seasonal and deeper rhythms of this beautiful country and hopefully to truly respect the knowledge held by Traditional Owners if we have ears to hear and eyes to see.

Alexis Wright - Waanyi Nation

These 2020 fires may be the single biggest opportunity we have to turn Australian society in the right direction. The book pictured here FIRE AND THE STORY OF BURNING COUNTRY Cape York Elders and Community Photographed and Recorded by Peter McConchie, Cyclops Press 2013, is the most beautiful, grounded pictorial description of Traditional land management, ongoing but interrupted since Colonial intervention. The words recorded and transcribed are those of the true Custodians of this country, whose relationship to fire is knowledgeable, touching and as deep as the earth itself. In the Introductory words of Victor Steffensen to this beautiful book:

"There is a common belief that climate change is to blame for an increase in wildfires. However, the climate has always changed and the people adapt the fire to whatever climate we get each year, hot, cold, wet, or dry. This makes the burning time different each year and is done by reading country. Climate change seems to be identified as the new threat by the institutions, taking away the basic truth that people are just disconnected from the land. This is a false sense of reality that simply continues to undermine traditional knowledge and stops community - drive aspirations from being part of current solutions….

If tracking down a book isn't going to happen here's a great online resource talking about traditional fire management

My classes are stretched across three small country towns in northwest NSW with populations from 2000 - 3000. Most of my students live on the land, work on the land or are in business affected by the land - so from that we can derive that all are drought affected to some degree.

I have watched how the drought crept up on us all, how the hoping and expectation of rain that “would” come slowly seemed to not arrive and the forecast soon stopped even predicting any short term relief and long term relief was each time extended for yet another 3 months, and another, then another. At first, farmers budget and continue to feed their stock, cart water and it’s all OK, but then it seems that the relentless nature of what they are doing seems to increase beyond their reckoning. The days turn into weeks, then months and for some years, the budgets dry up along with the dams and tanks. Families are carting containers of water or having water delivered regularly to supply their daily needs of drinking, washing hands, etc., they’re taking their laundry into town to the local Laundromat or caravan park to get another chore completed.

But amongst the relentless dust and dry, the dust, and the stock being sold, there has been a shining light amidst this and that is YOGA.

At the end of 2018 things were quickly getting worse and mental health levels seemed to be on decline with farmers isolated simply due to not being able to leave their stock that needed feeding and watering every day. A break away was impossible to achieve for most.

Prior to Average Joe-Ga I had been involved in numerous yoga events for men’s health over the years but this needed more and it needed it quickly.

I was lucky enough to collaborate with our local community college who sourced funding for me to run a men’s yoga group as a trial with an invitation to get some of these men off their properties and give them a chance to see that they were not alone, that there were others in the same situation and that coming together might ease the burden. A weekly distraction if you like. Something to look forward to.

Rather than selling the yoga class - I suggested the trip to town could be enhanced by a visit to the local pub afterward for dinner, drink and chat (without the teacher of course - boys talk only here). I also gathered the support of many of the women (some of which were already students) and with a group effort we managed to have 18 men enroll in the four-week course. I didn’t tell them it was actually eight - that would’ve been too much of a commitment, but four was reasonable. By the end of the four they were asking for more and thankfully I could promise the extra weeks, which took us up to the traditionally stressful time of Christmas and the dryness of another summer that had begun.

At the completion of the eight weeks, there was to be a long break with classes not resuming until February and it was then that this wonderful group of men committed to their first full year of weekly yoga classes. Their own time, their own class - “Average Joe-ga” for Awesome Men was officially on the timetable and in 2020 they now begin their second full year.

This class of men have not only gathered together at yoga as an excuse to go to the pub, but they have opened themselves up allowing a vulnerability that has been amazing to observe. They are brave in trying something new, they are gentle on their bodies, yet still have that competitive spirit that is inbuilt into many of us - but mostly they don’t take themselves too seriously and they enjoy what they can do and what they can’t do quite as easily.

There is the full range of aches and pains, shoulder and knee reconstructions and pending replacements from sporting injuries and there are all the physical pressures that play out in the life of a man on the land.

But yoga has bought them a reason to come to town, to strengthen themselves and their brotherhood as together they solve problems and discuss issues, and just lighten the load with light chat and deep laughter. There is no argument that savasana IS there favourite time of all. The lights are dropped very quickly by one of them in the back row and they all quickly settle into some time of rest, some time to slow down and ease the heaviness that surrounds them each and every day. Here they have found an amazing camaraderie in the most unlikely of spaces – their yoga studio. There is nothing average about these “average Joe’s” – they are amazing!

In 2008 then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd addressed the nation and said 'Sorry' His words hit home. This day - February 13th has been marked each year since in national events. To find a links to events in Melbourne, Gold Coast and Coffs Harbour today by visiting Yoga Australia's Reciprocity Action Plan Group and join whilst you are there.

This year as part of the Reciprocity Action Plan being brought together by the Australian yoga community we'd love to invite you to Acknowledge Country prior to class today. There are some words provided on the banner for Yoga Australia's Reciprocity Action Plan Group and these were designed by the Yarn Circle of 7 yoga teachers who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Whatever you say it just has to come from the heart 🙂 If you'd like further inspiration maybe read Teela's article.