Chocolate is how I carry story

I am a giilangyaldhaany - a storyteller. And yes, my tools are delicious! 🍫

Chocolate is the vessel. Language and protocol are the story arc. Advocacy is the outcome.

If you’re new here, I’m Fiona, Wiradyuri woman and Chief Chocolatier at Chocolate On Purpose®. This is the story of how chocolate became my way of carrying Culture, and how through storytelling with chocolate my narratives become workshops, gifts, and a supply chain choice.

For me, storytelling has never been limited to a page, a stage, or a screen.

It’s often held somewhere quieter. In the warmth of a hand, and the snap of couverture.
In the way a native botanical rises, then lingers, then invites you to listen more closely.

A quick promise, before we begin

If you’ve ever wondered how chocolate can carry more than flavour, this is for you. This is a story about listening with the senses, about Language and responsibility, and about what People, Planet, and Equity look like when they’re not slogans, but daily decisions.

Why I chose chocolate for storytelling

People often ask why I chose chocolate.

Because chocolate is shared. It slows a room down. It gives us a reason to gather without forcing the conversation. It can hold joy and grief in the same breath.

In my world, chocolate is not a novelty. It’s a bridge.

A bridge between:

• old knowledge and new contexts
• corporate rooms and Community truth
• what we inherit and what we choose to pass on

When someone tastes one of my chocolate creations, they’re not just consuming a product. They’re entering a story, one that asks for presence.

This is what I mean by listening with the senses.

And once you step onto that bridge, the next question is always the same: how do we carry story with responsibility?

Language and protocol as the spine

Our Elders instruct us that stories carry responsibility.

That’s why I hold tight to Language, to Cultural protocols, and to the way we name what matters. Country. Culture. Community. Ancestors. Elders.

When I use Wiradyuri words in my work, I’m not decorating a brand. I’m placing story back into relationship.

Sometimes a single word becomes a compass. Waynha is one of those words for me. Transformation.

It’s the truth of what our people have done for generations: transforming through adversity, protecting what is precious, and continuing anyway.

And it’s also the truth of what happens in a tasting, if you let it. You arrive busy. You slow down. You notice. You winhanganha - Remember.

You remember you have senses. You remember you have a heart.

That way of listening didn’t stay in the classroom. It followed me back into the chocolate room.

How the Indigenous Guided Chocolate Tasting workshop was born

During COVID, I began studying Wiradyuri Language at TAFE NSW, in online classes.

Those classes changed the way I listened.

They reminded me that Language is not just words...

• It’s ngiyawaygunhangidyal (identity).
• It’s mawang (relationship).
• It’s our nginha (focus) in the way we hold ngurambang (Country) and, in turn, are held by ngurambang.
• It’s our marramarra (action) in the way we behave within all of this.

That beginning led me into Certificate II studies, and then into the Graduate Certificate in Wiradyuri Language, Culture and Heritage at Charles Sturt University in Wagga.

And somewhere along that path, the Indigenous Chocolate Tasting Guided Visualisation Workshop was born.

Because when you’re learning Language, you’re also learning pace. You’re learning respect. You’re learning how to sit with meaning long enough for it to speak.

A guided tasting became my way of storytelling, to bring people into that same kind of listening, through the senses.

Watch what happens when a room slows down.

If you’d like to experience this kind of listening with the senses, you can explore the Indigenous Chocolate Tasting Guided Visualisation Workshop

If you’re exploring this for a workplace, it’s designed to help teams slow down, connect, and enter Culture with care.

Advocacy as the outcome: People, Planet, Equity

I don’t tell stories for attention. I tell stories because stories move people.

And when people move, systems can move too.

At Chocolate On Purpose®, our pillars are People, Planet, Equity.

I name them plainly because they are not marketing words to me. I name them because they are daily decisions.

People

Advocacy for People means strengthening Indigenous-led futures.

Australia’s bushfood and botanical supply industries have been built on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, yet Indigenous participation sits at less than 2%.

Within that already small percentage, Indigenous women are even less represented in these industries, despite our traditional role as matriarchal keepers of ancient plant knowledge systems, carried and protected through storytelling.

For me, this advocacy is practical and Cultural. It means sourcing native ingredients from Indigenous growers wherever possible; creating real pathways for Aboriginal women that honour them as matriarchal plant knowledge keepers; and ensuring our stories, Language, and knowledge are carried with care, consent, and respect.

It also means inviting non-Indigenous Australians into a deeper kind of listening, one that moves beyond symbolism and into relationship.

Planet

Planet is not a side note. Country is alive.

That’s why we’re palm oil-free. Because too often, palm oil comes with a hidden cost: rainforests cleared, endangered animal habitats broken, carbon emissions rising, and rainforest Indigenous peoples pushed from ancestral lands.

I won’t build a premium product on that kind of harm.

When we choose ingredients, packaging, and partners, we’re choosing what kind of future we’re willing to be part of. We’re choosing whether we treat the earth as a resource, or as our ngama dhaagun - mother earth.

And when we choose native botanicals, we’re choosing to keep knowledge close to Country. Think Ooray (Davidson Plum), Gulalung (Finger Lime), Munthari (Muntrie Berry), each one a sensory doorway into story.

For procurement teams, Munthari and every other botanical is also a supply chain decision: who you buy from, what you reward, and whether your spend strengthens ethical, Indigenous-led sourcing or repeats an extractive pattern.

Equity

Equity is where the supply chain becomes a story with consequences.

Chocolate begins long before our facility on Gundungurra Country in Moss Vale. It begins with cacao farmers, often women, often underpaid, often invisible.

So I keep asking: who carries the labour, and who carries the benefit?

Equity means we do not build our success on someone else’s hardship. It means we keep pushing for ethical sourcing, transparent choices, fair prices, and a business model that reinvests into communities rather than extracting from them.

Every chocolate made is a small decision inside a much bigger system.

How I write and make: story as a lived practice

My storytelling is not separate from my making.

It shows up in:

• the way I name Country and place, even in corporate settings
• the way I explain iconography so it stays connected to meaning
• the way I use chocolate as a conversation starter, not a distraction
• the way I invite people to slow down and listen, rather than rushing them to buy

I’ve learned that the most powerful advocacy is often quiet. It’s consistent. It’s specific. It’s grounded.

A story told with Yindyamarra - respect, gentleness, honour - does not need to shout.

If you’re reading this from a workplace

If you’re a corporate leader, EA, procurement manager, or culture lead, here’s what I want you to know.

Meaningful engagement is not a tick-box gesture. It’s mawang - relationship.

Chocolate can help open the door, but what matters is what you do next.

An invitation

If chocolate is the vessel, then your choice becomes part of the story.

If you’d like to understand our approach more deeply, you can start here: Meet Us and Giving Back

Mandaang guwu (thank you) for choosing presence over performance, and for meeting our story with care.

With care and connection,
Fiona