about us
A digital campfire kept alive by stories, carried forward by kin, and guided by the old ways to remember what it means to be Human.
take a seat by the fire
Imagine yourself beneath an ancient sky, the stars not distant, but close enough to hear the stories sung on the breeze as they rustle through the trees. You hear the wisdom of those who came before, the voices of the ancestors who sit around their fires in skycamp.
The fire in front of you crackles softly, its sparks rising to meet the constellations like messengers carrying the stories from the world of spirit and back again. The warm sand vibrates, the earth hums beneath your feet while the smoke dances around you, moves through you, sings you in, grounds you, and welcomes you back.
Â
This is where The VA Network began. Under a sky that holds time like a breath, Andrew D Flanagan and his mentor and elder Dig Jones sitting around the campfire on Wiradjuri country. The fire light glowed as the old mans hands moved with purpose, carving stories into the earth, patterns of creation drawn into the warm sand. They weren’t stories of the past, but maps of the way ahead, of retrieving forward the ways to guide the path for the future, symbols drawn to guide not just our feet but our hearts and our spirits. Each mark held the weight of generations past and those yet to come, the wisdom of lives lived in deep relation with the land, and all that call it Home.
The fire doesn’t belong to you or me. It belongs to the stories. Our role is to keep it burning. To gather the people and make space for the truth to rise with the smoke, to touch as many people as it can, to bring everyone back under the lore of the land, back into our role as custodians of creation.
This is our purpose – there is nothing more important.
What was to become ‘The VA Network’ was drawn in the sand by the fire that night, breathed into this world from the land of spirit and carried back by the smoke to the constellations overhead.
A promise etched into the earth, carried by the flames and held in the space between Us
The VA Network is a unique digital platform dedicated to preserving and sharing ancient wisdom through storytelling. A digital campfire, not another streaming service. A relational network, not a social one. Our focus is on fostering deep connections and guiding humanity back to balance through the power of narrative. Our mission is to keep the ‘digital campfire’ burning, ensuring that vital stories and traditional knowledge are accessible to all, fostering a future rooted in reciprocity and shared custodianship of creation.
It’s a space where ancient wisdom meets modern technology, where the voices of the past help guide the decisions we make now for the sake of the ones yet to come. A future rooted in balance, reciprocity, and our shared role as custodians of creation.
This isn’t about centering Indigenous voices for decoration or diversity points; it’s about decentring the extractive gaze, dismantling the structures that keep us apart, and inviting everyone to sit around the same fire. To bring your story, your truth, your piece of the pattern alongside others, and in doing so, come back into relation.
Stories shared around this fire are more than tales, they are medicine for a world that’s lost its way. They are maps, not of land as geography, but of spirit, of responsibility, of law. Each film, series, voice, each story added here is another stick on the fire, another spark that lights up the ancient design inside us all, the pattern of creation we all still hold a fragment of. These stories teach us how to live right. How to care for Country, for kin, for the animals, for spirit, for future generations. They are not just records of what was, they are blueprints for what could still be.
A relational network, not a social one.
Focused on increase, not on growth.
In a world fractured by disconnection, the VA Network is a pathway Home – a journey to remembrance, to belonging, to the wisdom that has been protected and past down, the knowing that still lives deep within Us-All. In this age of noise and urgency, where the voices of tradition, of our true histories are silenced and mocked, this fire holds space for those that matter most. These are the ones that carry stories passed through generations, not irrelevant relics of the past to be in museums behind glass but the key compass points for navigating a modern life unmoored from the rhythms of land and spirit. These voices don’t just meet the ears; they warm the heart and awaken the spirit those ready to listen, learn, and to act.
The stories we share are more than entertainment – they are medicine for a world in crisis. They hold the keys to healing – our relationships with the land, with each other, and with ourselves. Within these stories lie the answers to all of the questions we’ve forgotten to ask.
custodians on ways, keepers of the fire, guardians of the present for those who came before, and all who come after
We are the keepers of the stories, the tenders of the flame, the ones who sit at the edge of the fire, listening to the land, to the people, and to the wisdom carried in the spaces between. This digital campfire is a place where voices rise, stories live, and connections are restored and nurtured.Â
Our mission is to amplify the the voices of the world’s Indigenous and First Nations peoples, fostering cultural preservation, global conversation, collective understanding and healing through the unparalleled power of authentic storytelling and narrative sovereignty.
By empowering creators and artists providing a global stage for narratives that might otherwise remain unheard, we are making these unparalleled stories possible. This digital campfire is a unique space where ancient wisdom meets modern technology, braiding the past and future into something strong, enduring, and profoundly purposeful. We are the fire keepers, the storytellers, the custodians of connection, and we are here to help you remember that you are, too.
We are all one people, a part of one global community, sitting around one fire – we are custodians, each tending to a different part of the fire we all share. We do not own the stories shared here – they belong to the land, the communities, the generations that held them safely, and the generations reaching out to grasp them.
We are the fire keepers. The storytellers. The custodians of connection. And we are here to help you remember that you are, too.
The fire isn’t yours to keep. It’s yours to carry. To tend to. And if you carry it well, it will light the way for generations to come.
lighting the way back to balance
We are living in a time when this knowledge, these ways of knowing and being, are more important than ever. We see it, we feel it, we know it deep within us. The old people say that when the world starts spinning too fast, when people forget where they stand, it is the stories that slow us down and bring us back into rhythm. Right now, the threads that once tied us to land, to each other, and to spirit are fraying. Some say it’s too late to weave them back together, that we’ve lost too much. But the wisdom hasn’t disappeared. It never does. It sits quiet in the land, in the languages, in the old songs, in the collective memory of those still living in relation with the land, waiting for those with ears to hear and hearts ready to act.
This project was started because we saw the cost of forgetting. We saw what happens when stories are stripped from Country, turned into commodities, or left to gather dust on library shelves. It is conservation, it is preservation, it is survival. It is about remembering that story is law, story is life, and story is how we find our place again. Dig sparked this fire, and together we’ve tended it, knowing it was never ours alone, nor did we ever want it to be. This fire belongs to the people, to the land, to the countless generations that kept these stories safe, and for all those yet to hold them.
Story holds the power to heal, to inspire, and to guide us back to balance. This is a fire we invite you to gather around, because it takes all of us to tend it, to sustain it, to increase its warmth. Caring for this flame is an act of remembering and reimagining – of creating a future where every voice matters, every story lives, and the fire burns brightly for those who will one day sit where we sit now.
Creolizing Our Return to Custodianship
