This article explores and reflects upon some of the ethical tensions and practical issues relevant to the author’s research which involved undertaking narrative inquiry with young people from Anglo-Saxon and Pacific Islander cultural backgrounds, and First Nations young people, all recently released from youth justice detention in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Ethical tensions which arose while undertaking this research related to the impact of gatekeeper reliance, through minimising the likelihood of reprisals for young people engaging in the research, as well through practical and relational limitations exacerbated by the advent of Covid-19.