Mabo: Encountering the Epistemic Limit of the Recognition ‘Difference'

This article contends that while the recognition of difference is an essential precursor to justice for Aboriginal people, it was not accomplished in the High Court's decision in Mabo, which is more appropriately characterised as a recognition of 'sameness'. Law's capacity to address justice depends on the possibility of recognising and understanding the particularity of the claimant; yet current modes of recognising difference have their origins in a liberal humanism and construction of knowledge which loses specificity and difference. The article proceeds through an initial discussion of the non-recognition of difference in Mabo, through an assessment of commentary since the judgment, and onto an examination of the limitations of current modes of understanding 'the other' and an exploration of ways of overcoming those limitations.