Indigenous art depicting Earthquake Foot, Artwork by A-nii-sa-put @ Royal BC Museum and Archives

Let's take a look at an example. The above artwork by Hesquiaht artist A-nii-sa-put is an example of nonmaterial culture. The art captures a Nuu-chah-nulth teaching from Yuquot (Friendly Cove, British Columbia) about the causes of earthquakes. It tells the story of mountain dwarves inviting a person to dance around their drum. When the person tires and kicks the drum, he gets earthquake foot and his steps sets off tremors. The artwork teaches the Nuu-chah-nulth to have foresight that earthquakes and tsunamis will happen again on the west coast of Canada. Nonmaterial culture such as the above story and artwork can be a powerful tool for disaster risk reduction. 

Another example of culture's role in reducing disaster risk is the Smog tradition of indigenous knowledge of tsunami risk which saved thousands of lives on the island of Simeulue in Aceh, Indonesia during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. While the earthquake took the lives of 200,000 people in the Aceh province, only seven of the 78,000 people living on Simeulue island lost their lives. It was their indigenous knowledge of what to do in response to an earthquake that triggered appropriate actions and ultimately saved their lives.