Indigenous people don’t see natural disaster — they see balance

Powerful forces dismissed as destructive are also important components of creation

When it comes to nature and the natural world, Indigenous people have a much different world view than the rest of the modern world.

This comes out at times when the news media reports on natural disasters that Indigenous people refer to as natural disturbances.

It’s overkill to call a natural event a disaster when it has been occurring since the world began.

A good example is all the hoopla about the eruption of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii.

The spreading erupting fissures are destroying property and have caused the evacuation of whole neighbourhoods. The local Hawaiians are failing to run in panic — instead, they are giving offerings to Pele, who is the goddess of fire, lightning and volcanoes. She is both the creator and destroyer. She is otherwise known as Pelehomuamea, which means “she who shapes the sacred land.” She is also called Madame Pele out of respect.

Through her volcanic activity, she created the chain of Hawaiian Islands and currently lives in the crater on the highest point of the Kilauea volcano.

The native Hawaiians have greeted her latest outburst with welcome ceremonies and feasts. If she takes their house, so be it. It’s a price you pay for living so close to Pele.

I saw a news item in which the residents whose homes were in the path of the lava were calling upon the government to somehow change the flow of the lava. They wanted to bring in heavy equipment or bombs, or anything that would do the trick.

According to the assembled experts, this would be very difficult, if not impossible.

While all this was going on, some native Hawaiians stepped forward and explained the story of the Goddess Pele and how it would be sacrilegious to interfere with her. The lava is regarded as the physical embodiment of Pele and those who take lava from the islands will be cursed with bad luck, according to legend.

It became apparent that the newcomers felt they were outsiders who had ventured into a strange land.

Pele is unpredictable and it’s clear she is in charge and all the people can do is look on.

Meanwhile, we in Canada have our own relationship with the land; fire is seen as a helpful tool and a necessary part of the great circle of life.

A few years ago, I was visiting a northern community when a forest fire was burning nearby. One of the residents told me that he hoped it would come closer to the community, so they would have lots of firewood.

He also told me that in the future, there would be good berry picking and green foliage for moose. To him, the forest fire was a natural act and out of it came good.

North Americans have been raised on a diet of Smokey Bear and Disney’s story of Bambi, which portray forest fires as dangerous and destructive. But without fires, we have a more dangerous ecosystem.

Without fire to rejuvenate the forest, we have mature stands of timber, and years of fire suppression only make the matter worse. Last year, fire raged through mature stands of pine forest in Waterton Lakes National Park.

Waterton, like the Cypress Hills, is home to forests of lodgepole pine, so named because they made the best tipi poles. The only way lodgepole pines can reproduce is when the heat from a fire opens the extremely tough pine cones that contain the seeds. In this case, fire is a necessary part of the ecosystem.

Scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki points to Indigenous people as the people who best understand the natural world and states that Indigenous people view the world through a different cultural lens.

Our people see the world for what it is — a balanced ecosystem that we should not try to control. We must honour and respect the gifts the creator has given us.