Aboriginal
worldviews encompassed what could be understood by Western
culture as elements of both the natural and supernatural
worlds. In Nature’s Law, the parameters of "nature" do not match Western conceptions;
likewise there is no clear demarcation between the natural
and the supernatural. That is, Indigenous groups resisted
defining nature as just what can be seen by the eye, or felt
by the body, or heard by the ear. Indeed, some notions of
nature also involved the supernatural, for gifted members of
society could see, feel, hear and interact with what we
would call supernatural forces. Thus, forces and powers of
the spirit world, including ancestors and unknown energies
in the cosmos were part of the natural order, since they
were accorded influence in the affairs of animals, humans
and the landscape at large. When we use the term Nature’s
Law, then, we are using it in the enlarged Indigenous sense.
|