Our Aboriginal languages and culture contain the accumulated knowledge of our ancestors, and it is critical that we examine the inherent concepts in our lexicons to develop understandings of the self in relation to existence. The Cree Word mamatowisowin, for example describes the capability of tapping into the 'life force' as a means of pro-creation. This Cree concept describes a capacity to be or do anything to be creative it is a capacity to tap the creative force of the inner space by the use of all the faculties that constitute our being - it is to exercise inwardness.

- The Circle Unfolds - First Nations Education in Canada, Willie Ermine Cree Elder and Scholar

The several hundred glyphs are disposed upon the sloping limestone surface in what appears at first to be a seemingly haphazard compositional arrangement. What groupings and clusters may be observed are conditioned not by the human hand or eye, but by the numerous hollows, crevices, and seams that crisscross the surface of the rock. There are no pictorial, bounding frames, no ground lines, no apparent evidence of linkages or interaction between individual glyphs or clusters of glyphs. Rather the crevices and the sloping character of the rock itself are the major determinants for the disposition of individual motifs: the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal formations provide natural frames or boundaries within which the artist or artists have rendered their images.

But these natural configurations in the rock did not merely provide a surface format. They became, in fact, part of the pictorial imagery itself. In the case of many individual glyphs, as we have already seen, the hollows and crevices either suggested an image to the carver or were incorporated into and fused with the subject matter of the glyphs. In other words, the rock surface has become part of the visual image, nature has been transformed into a work of art. The glyphs, therefore, do not exist in a random, non directional space. They are disposed and positioned in keeping with the natural features of a particular rock outcropping and, in many instances, are made integral with their natural setting. This observation cannot be over-emphasized, because the disposition of pictorial images in prehistoric art sites elsewhere has been frequently described as chaotic, without spatial direction, and as failing to obey any principles of human ordering or composition. Closer inspection, however, suggests otherwise. Although the Peterborough Petroglyphs do not reveal any hieratic, narrative, or geometrical compositional arrangements, they are not devoid of any order whatsoever. In fact, the relationship between the artist and his medium revealed at this site, is one of total cooperation between man and Nature; the artist works with, rather than impose himself upon the natural environment, a fact that discloses a great deal about the artist's culture, about Algonkian world view and mythology.

The absence of an imposed scheme upon Nature, however, does not constitute 'primitive characteristics', nor can the principle of pictorial harmony with Nature be deemed a developmental mode of artistic composition. Rather the arrangement of images must be seen as embodying, expressing and communicating the relationship between the artist and his medium, between culture and Nature. European works of art have most often obeyed the principle of simultaneity both of creation and experience; the work is planned and executed from the beginning as a single unified composition, a composition, moreover, that is conceived by an artist or team of artists, working from a uniform scheme. The observer is likewise urged to experience that work in its entirety, as an undivided whole within which all elements combine to communicate a specific event in time or a sequence of related moments.

If the glyphs are to be experienced as being at one with the rock both physically and iconographically, then the site itself must be perceived as integral with its landscape setting and surrounding space. In Algonkian ideology, as we have seen, space itself is not without form, it is charged with meaning, structured, and differentiated in terms of axial directions, sacred centres, and degrees of supernatural potency. The choice of the limestone surface rather than an animal hide or a piece of bark upon which to render sacred images attests to the fact that the rock itself is a sacred object and embodies in itself a concentration of Manitou. It is also a microcosm of the universe, a spiritual sanctuary, and archetypal temple. To have painted or carved the individual images on another medium would have been a meaningless irrelevant act. To fully apprehend this remarkable site, therefore the Algonkians sense of place, their feeling for the potency, oneness and sacredness of natural phenomena must be realized. This form of sacred art is an outgrowth and expression of reverence and respect for nature in all its manifestations, for nature's landmarks of special and spiritual meaning. Images are carved on this rock because here the spirits have their abode, they are assembled at this place because its natural and physical qualities evoke the very structure of the universe: here the upper and the lower worlds meet at the centre of the universe. Among the Algonkians, therefore and at this site in particular, art cannot be readily separated visually or iconographically from nature. The images engraved here are not the projections of man, imposing his will upon his surroundings. Instead, they render visible the hidden meanings in nature whose significance it has been the shaman's task to conjure up and capture on stone.