Our justice system is not meeting the needs of Aboriginal people. We have a system of imposed justice, where Aboriginal people feel little sense of ownership or engagement. Decisions are made about Aboriginal people, not together with them. Aboriginal defendants are not engaged in court processes. They often don’t understand technical language used in court, or have a shared understanding of Western legal concepts they are subjected to. In other ways, our processes do not create a culturally supportive environment for Aboriginal people. Courts seldom have detailed cultural information about an Aboriginal defendant when making life-changing decisions such as whether to sentence an Aboriginal person to prison or refuse them bail. Aboriginal restorative justice practices like mediation that promote healing, restore relationships and repair harm done, are rarely part of how our justice system resolves a matter, with the consequence that relationships and underlying issues are left unaddressed. The aim of this project is to see what we can learn from promising initiatives in Canada, the Unites States and New Zealand. I was able to observe attempts in each of these jurisdictions to improve justice processes and outcomes for Aboriginal people. It is argued that it has only been when these jurisdictions have acknowledged systemic bias in how the justice system deals with Aboriginal people that Aboriginal-specific justice initiatives have been able to grow.