Before crafting anything, we pause. Silence allows us to hear what is usually missed: The tone, the hesitation, the subtext, the memories that rise only when space is offered.

We do not listen to confirm what we think we know. We listen to be changed by what we hear.

Silence isn’t emptiness. It’s intention.

We refuse narratives that flatten people into symbols, spectacles or stereotypes. Our work rejects extraction disguised as storytelling. Instead, we honour complexity. We centre agency. We allow contradictions to live without forcing them into tidy arcs.

A story is only powerful if the people within it remain whole.

We see ourselves as guests in the stories of others.

We are not experts arriving with answers. We are partners arriving with curiosity. Communities know their own truths far better than we ever could. Our role is to bring craft, structure and care, while allowing people to shape how their stories are told.

When we co-create, the process becomes as important as the outcome.

We follow the thread rather than impose the pattern. Through our core practice - “Listen. Gather. Weave.” - we allow the narrative to reveal itself.

This demands patience, rigour and humility. Sometimes it leads us somewhere unexpected. That is the point.

The story knows where it wants to go. We pay attention and follow.