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Criminal sentencing in the West has been framed by risk metrics, deficit assumptions and systemic racism. In Australia, First Nations people are routinely classified as high risk based on measures relating to criminal history and nature of the offence. These measures purport to be objective but conceal the racism and classism in the policing and criminalisation processes. Our paper draws on research findings conducted in collaboration with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service that analyse Aboriginal Community Justice Reports in sentencing. These reports are written by and for First Nations people in order to centre their stories, including their experiences of ongoing colonisation, the impact of genocide on their communities and the ongoings strengths of their community and cultural connections. They identify the role of racism in the criminal law system and seek to promote options that involve reintegration, cultural responses and First Nations community engagement. Although it is impossible to decolonise the criminal law system – given that it was built on the colonial impetus to control, exclude and incarceration – Aboriginal Community Justice Reports provide a glimpse into rewriting narratives on First Nations terms. In this way, the system is forced to confront its complicity in the ongoing carceral colonialism confronting First Nations peoples.