Une petite France Australe : Everyday patterns of criminal justice for Indigenous peoples in northern Australia and New Caledonia

This article paints a contemporary picture of the place of Kanak people in New Caledonia’s penal system, with attention to aspects which mirror the place occupied by Aboriginal Australians in our own. It is prompted by the major unrest of May 2024 in the archipelago. The two spaces which host our attention are courtrooms and prisons. A contribution of this article is the reproduction of primary source material gathered by l'Observatoire international des Prisons (the International Prison Monitor, a French NGO) from prisoners and lawyers in New Caledonia. The emphasis is on commonalities at the most basic, everyday level between legal systems siloed by distinct imperial histories.