Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 17, 2007

GJOA HAVEN - "Inuuttialirut" is the closest word in Inuktitut that elders in Arviat could find to fit the practice of yoga.

The definition, as told to yoga teacher Kerry Lawson earlier this year, is "method or practice to bring about balance and right feeling."

For the past five years Lawson has been teaching yoga to students and community members across the North. Earlier this year, accompanied by two Grade 5 students, she demonstrated a yoga session to a group of elders and members of the GN's Department of Education in the Kivalliq region.

To Lawson's surprise, the movements and breathing techniques were not new to the elders in attendance.

"They said, 'That looks just like the games our grandmothers use to play with us when we were little,'" a translator related to Lawson.

"These games would've been played as a way to practice connectedness to the land and to each other," the translator continued.

There was time to play these games when people lived off the land, he explained to Lawson.

The games would teach the children how to focus, concentrate and connect to their surroundings.

These are the same goals Lawson has for her students across Nunavut.

She recently led a two-day workshop in Yellowknife, NWT with teachers from across Nunavut and the NWT. She instructs others on how to teach yoga, a method of movements, which attempts to unite one's body and mind.

Following the workshop, Lawson, who is from Nova Scotia, travelled to several different Northern communities, including Gjoa Haven.

In all, she did 14 yoga sessions with the Quqshunn Ilihakvik students, two with Qiqirtaq Ilihakvik high school students, one with Arctic college students and put on a social event for community members between Nov. 12 and 15.

Bern O'Brien, a student support teacher at the elementary school, will continue where Lawson left off, and teach weekly yoga sessions for any interested student starting in the new year.

"The students loved it," O'Brien said. "They can learn how to relax - that's one of the very important things. They can learn how to follow directions, they can learn how to meditate, they can take control of their breathing and it's very healthy for them," she said.

O'Brien added that the students seemed calmer after their yoga sessions.

It's something Lawson hears from teachers wherever she goes.

"The kids say, 'I feel so calm now. I don't feel so sad. I'm not so angry,'" Lawson said.

She keeps the yoga simple when teaching students, but also challenges them to keep their attention. They work on balance, memory and speak about how they feel.

"With children it can be like a game, like how the Inuit used to do it," she said.