ify 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 and was available for occupation and acquisition Does that constitute a fresh point of departure in the acquisition of title to land?
In other words, does a modern legal system recognize that the people who inhabited those lands during the period prior to the arrival of the European settlers did not enjoy any kind of security of tenure in respect of that land They had no title that was capable of recognition by law and the European settlers were in a position to move in and to take that land as though it belonged to them by virtue of conquest and acquisition.
In what is perhaps one of the most striking judicial developments in Australia during the last decade, the majority of the High Court held that this was not a permissible construction of law because the aboriginal people did have tenure in respect of their land which was fully recognised by the contemporary legal system. Consequently the Western settlers did not acquire good title in respect of some of those lands. Now this has become a very volatile political problem in Australia at the present time Prime Minister John Keating is struggling to give expression to some of the practical implications of that judgment in the teeth of very vigorous opposition
There has been a great deal of agitation in Australia on these lines Does this mean that the white settlers can be dispossessed from some of their lands? Will there be confusion with regard to title to land as a consequence of the recognition of the rights of aboriginal people? Can the whites be thrown out of their lands in view of the decision that was handed down by the High Court of Australia? Now some of these issues have arisen but the incumbent government of Australia has had the courage and the fortitude to uphold some of the principles embodied in this decision pronounced by the High Court of Australia.
There has been similar developments which are reflected in pronouncements by international tribunals An example is the judgment by Justice Weeramanthry, a Sri Lankan who now sits on the International Co