Mataji Yoga School began in 2010 when some of my students wanted to take their practice to the next stage of becoming teachers. I wasn't sure I was ready to be that teacher and went to India for my own certification and learning. There I found what was happening to yoga as an industry in courses that were more about numbers than yoga, a governing body that didn't seem to care and a whole lot of disillusioned potential teachers sitting around their chai not knowing what to do next. I returned home to Aotearoa/New Zealand disappointed.
Over the intervening years the issue of cultural appropriation became louder and louder with the question becoming, 'should people who are not from India or its diaspora teach yoga at all?' It's been a difficult question with many teachers leaving the profession or questioning how they teach. At the same time the online world of yoga has continued to veer into the strange and fantastical meaning that answering the question of what kind of yoga you teach has become more what don't you teach - no goats. In 2022 I interim graduated my last group of yoga teachers. I decided that the beautiful Shed 23 was the last yoga studio that I would run and the lease will run out in October 2023. What does that mean for Mataji Yoga School?
Over the intervening years the issue of cultural appropriation became louder and louder with the question becoming, 'should people who are not from India or its diaspora teach yoga at all?' It's been a difficult question with many teachers leaving the profession or questioning how they teach. At the same time the online world of yoga has continued to veer into the strange and fantastical meaning that answering the question of what kind of yoga you teach has become more what don't you teach - no goats. In 2022 I interim graduated my last group of yoga teachers. I decided that the beautiful Shed 23 was the last yoga studio that I would run and the lease will run out in October 2023. What does that mean for Mataji Yoga School?
I continue to offer professional development and coaching for existing yoga teachers and, for now, an ongoing timetable over at TheCircleatShed23.com for regular classes and retreats. From October 2023 this site and that will be redirected to natashamathis.com and I will see what the next chapter involves.