Murri Courts are a specialist criminal law practice that includes Elders and respected persons of the local Community Justice Group in the sentencing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defendants. Drawing on an ethnographic study of two southeast Queensland Murri Courts, this article explores the impact of State ordered out-of-home care on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defendants and their children. We show how Community Justice Groups and specialist courts help to address the intergenerational impacts of child protection interventions. The rights of Australian Indigenous peoples to enjoy, maintain, control, protect and develop their kinship ties is recognised under the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) and international human rights treaties. We suggest that policymakers and legislators should better recognise and support Community Justice Groups and specialist courts as they provide an important avenue for implementing the rights of Australian Indigenous peoples to recover and maintain their kinship ties.

In response to the over‐representation of Australian Indigenous women in the criminal justice system, culturally relevant and gender‐specific bail programs operate in several Queensland Indigenous sentencing courts or Murri Courts. Queensland Murri Courts are a specialist criminal law practice, which includes Elders and respected persons of Community Justice Groups in the sentencing process of Indigenous peoples. 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 aspire to create an Indigenous‐centred space outside of court proceedings where defendants and Community Justice Group members of the same gender can build a rapport. Gender‐specific bail programs aim to recognise the intricacies of an Indigenous woman's intersectional identity and the diverse needs of each defendant that comes before the Murri Court.

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