ystems. First of all there is a certain emphasis on security. Security — that is something that is sadly lacking in our own civilization and culture. The security came from certain basic relationships, the family, the temple or the church as the case may be, certain relationships which were central to the life of the community at that time.
These were overlapping and interlocking relationships that imparted meaning and substance to life. In times of trouble there were people to fall back upon. There were persons whose guidance was forthcoming and there were in-built safeguards that sustained social life at that time. Now those are the areas in which modern life is vulnerable, precisely because of the absence of those supports, and props and safeguards. So the first theme is security. The traditional values were buttressed; they were fortified and sustained by an emphasis on security.
Secondly, there was a sense of balance. There was a perceptive equilibrium that was achieved. I think that is equally important. Man's conquest of nature .was always tempered by a certain moderation, a certain restrain in the exploitation of the resources of nature. There was a recognition of the sanctity the environment, an acknowledgement that natural resources could not be tapped and exploited beyond the point without inflicting irretrievable damage on the heritage to which we are heirs.
By all means there was a readiness to benefit from the exploitation of the physical environment, but it was done in a manner that was restrained, with some thoughts for posterity. So there were conflicting interests and the balance was perceptively struck between these competing forces. That is the second element that I would identify in traditional values the merit of balance.
The third hall mark which I would identify in a traditional value system is that of contentment. People were generally content with their lot in life. There was not an overweening desire to extend oneself, to expand the horizons of achievement in a such a manner as to stultify one's own initiatives. Today, we live in a world where we are striving to achieve more and more. We want more and more material goods most of which we do not need, and most of which we lack the resources to pay for.
It is a rat race. There is so much strain, so much tension. What I slacking is the inner spirit of well being, of contentment. Now that is something that the traditional value system enjoyed in abundant measure.
Accumulative impact of these values — balance, contentment, and security — gave a certain distinctive quality and character to traditional values I think those can be recognized as an antithesis to the kind of values that pervade contemporary civilization All this probably has happened because we have been continually moving away from nature That, I think, is a fundamental problem
Recently the international community and indeed international organizations under the aegis of the United Nations have been focusing upon ways and means of restoring, at least in part, some of this stability that was characteristic of traditional civilizations, the civilizations that are associated with indigenous peoples Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization is an example of that trend The pith and substance of that resolution is to emphasize that indigenous people are entitled to certain inalienable rights including control of their resources, dominion resources That I think has been one of the problems that the modern world has begun to grapple with
An instance of that relates to systems of land tenure which were entrenched among indigenous people I do not know how many of you are familiar with a very celebrated decision that was handed by the High Court of Australia — that is the most exalted judicial tribunal in Australia about two and a half years ago I refer to the Marbo case where the High Court of Australia had to consider the question whether, when the European settlers came to Australia, the land that they found was res nulleus, that is, a land that did not belong to anybody at all an