Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the book, Indigenous Legal Judgments: Bringing Indigenous Voices into Judicial Decision Making, an original collection of 16 key judgments that have been rewritten so as to be inclusive of Indigenous peoples’ histories, experiential knowledge, and world views. Each judgment is preceded by a short commentary that places the case in its social, policy, and legal context, introduces the judgment being rewritten, and explains what the rewritten judgment does differently. The judgments and commentaries have been arranged into five overlapping and interrelated themes—sovereignty; land and sea country; racism and discrimination; family and identity; and criminalisation and criminal neglect. This introductory chapter provides an outline of the inspiration for the project and discusses the approaches of the authors and their experiences of the writing process. It also provides an overview of the five themes and their judgments, placing each judgment within the story of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ engagement with Australian law.