The tales we tell here focus on the ethical issues arising from our research practice
with vulnerable young participants and those for whom research has been
inextricably linked with European imperialism and colonialism. The importance
of relational obligations, temporality and potential for a continuing narrative
approach to ethical research cannot be underestimated, and accordingly we
recount our experiences in order to highlight these obligations as well as ethical
tensions that we encountered. Importantly, our tales and the underpinning
theorization suggest that Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) ‘perform’
their duties and make decisions to a pre-ordained set of prescriptive standards that
do not necessarily take into account the agency of vulnerable young people or
Indigenous women.