Paper short abstract:

The paper explores how Indigenous Elders and respected persons negotiate the changing nature of bail, from an administrative process to a performance-based system, for Indigenous women in southeast Queensland Indigenous sentencing courts.

Paper long abstract:

Indigenous women are increasingly overrepresented in Australia's criminal justice system. To address this overrepresentation, gender-specific bail programs operate in several Queensland Indigenous sentencing courts or Murri Courts. Indigenous sentencing courts are a specialist criminal law practice that involves Elders and respected persons in the sentencing process of Indigenous peoples. In Queensland, Murri Courts first began operating in 2002 in the jurisdiction of the Brisbane Magistrates Court, before expanding to 17 locations across the state. Despite the abolition of these courts in 2012, Murri Courts continued to operate in 13 locations under the name 'Indigenous Sentencing List', until the official reinstatement of these courts in 2016. To participate in Queensland Murri Courts, defendants were required to partake in several therapeutic bail programs before their sentence was finalised. The undertaking of therapeutic bail conditions reflects a wider conceptual shift in the legal system, where bail denotes a performance-based system, rather than an administrative process. This paper explores the role of one gender-specific bail program, Women's Yarning or Talking Circles, in one southeast Queensland Murri Court. Women's Yarning Circles aim to create a space outside of court proceedings where defendants and Community Justice Group members of the same gender can build a rapport. This paper argues that gender-specific bail programs recognise the intricacies of an Indigenous woman's intersectional identity and the diverse needs of each defendant that comes before the Murri Court. This paper also examines the role of Indigenous sentencing courts in settler-colonial countries.