Yoga in the Museum: Affirming Queer Identities with Udaya Shan

Yoga in the Museum: Affirming Queer Identities with Udaya Shan

Friday 29 Aug 2025 9:00am-10:00am

Join UQ Yoga and Meditation Club on Wear it Purple Day for a one-hour yoga session under the grand pipe organ in UQ Art Museum.

Hosted by global peace scholar and yoga practitioner Jothi Udaya Shan this yoga session will explore meditations that affirm and celebrate LGBTQIA+ identities. Please wear comfortable clothes suitable for movement. Yoga mats are provided. This event is pay by donation,. All funds will go to Yoga for Peace an initiative where Udaya offers free Yoga classes to refugees, displaced and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Jothi Udaya Shan is a proud Eelam Tamil woman from what is now present-day Sri Lanka. She is a storyteller and peace activist committed to preserving her Tamil Indigenous cultural heritage, collective memory, land and language. Her work has been featured in IndigenousX (Australia), SBS (Australia), Groundviews (Sri Lanka), and the book Global Voices for Peace.

A certified yoga and meditation teacher. She is the founder of the Yoga for Peace Project, a social enterprise that offers free yoga programs to families affected by displacement and violence. In 2023, Udaya was awarded the prestigious Rotary Peace Fellowship in recognition of her decade-long career in international peacebuilding, including work with the United Nations. Through the fellowship, she earned a Master’s degree in Peace Studies from the University of Queensland. She also holds a Master’s degree in Criminology and Law from the University of Toronto.

Udaya has worked with human rights organizations in Kenya, Palestine, Sri Lanka, and Lesvos. She is a certified conflict mediator and negotiator. Additionally, she is the co-founder of Culture Collective, an initiative led by Indigenous women to foster artistic collaboration and build communities among global Indigenous peoples—for our collective healing and self-determination.

Location:

UQ Art Museum