Shayla Stonechild has been practicing Yoga for about five years. The 27-year-old from Muscowpetung First Nation in Saskatchewan now lives and teaches yoga in Vancouver.
She also started the Matriarch Movement that can be found on Instagram.
Her big news this month? She’s on cover of the March issue of Yoga Journal.
“Yoga journal had been following my Instagram for a few months I believe so they were getting familiar with the work I was doing for non profit organization the Matriarch Movement which is on amplifying Indigenous voices through meditation movement yoga and coming back to an indigenous worldview,” says Stonechild
She sees being on the cover as an opportunity to educate its readers about the history of the Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
“This yoga journal magazine we shot in December and the doors it’s opened for me now,” she said. “It’s given me a chance to have my voice and story heard to communities who have not heard what happened here in Canada especially in the United States a lot of them don’t know about the Indian Act or residential schools or what happened here in Canada.”
Yoga is a very important part of Stonechild’s life.
“I took my first yoga teaching training at I believe 22 and from that I got scholarships through other training so I have over 500 hours of yoga teaching training.
She says its been easy incorporating her Cree culture into yoga.
“We as Indigenous people already have a lot of tools already given to us from the families we grew up with from our ancestors when you look at our ceremonies the purification ceremony through the sweat we have Sundance these are all connecting you to something greater than just yourself,” she says.
Stonechild also host’s Red Earth Uncovered that airs on APTN.
