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.