Central to the authorship of River Road: Journeys Through Ecology (Rim Books, 2011) is a collaborative process; three authors in dialogue, taking risks, engaging in multi-vocal story-telling. In this presentation I describe the strategies we, as authors, developed. My contribution was a series of observational photographs modelled on a ‘transect’ method used in ecological sampling. This series was prompted by a search for significance in my all-too-familiar home territory. Unsatisfied with the limitations of my own survey I invited Wiremu Puke (Ngati Wairere writer, carver and activist) to engage in conversation and contribute his first person account of the space that he also calls home. The third partner, Jonty Valentine, brought his voice to the project as he worked with the design, mapping and materiality of the book. Together we developed strategies to navigate the reader through these complex parallel narratives.