Decolonization on the Salish Sea: A Tribal Journey back to Mormon Studies

Decolonization is vital to undoing the legacy of racism and colonialism in today’s world but is also challenging work that is tasking for the researcher and those with whom we work. This auto-ethnographic narrative offers important lessons for the decolonization of Mormonism. It highlights the experiences of Thomas Murphy as he has navigated the terrain of Mormon Studies early in his career, shifted focus to decolonization projects on the Salish Sea, and returns again to look at Mormonism anew. Murphy reflexively examines his own identity as a light-skinned Mormon raised with stories of Indigenous ancestry and the inspiration these gave for ethnographic fieldwork among Mayan, Ladino, Nahua, Zapotec and Coast Salish communities. He draws from his experiences on the Tribal Canoe Journey’s 2014 Paddle to Bella Bella, British Columbia in Canada to offer a vision for a decolonized Mormonism, one in which Indigenous sovereignty is respected and artifacts associated with the production of Mormon scripture are repatriated. In the process of decolonizing ourselves, he argues, we need to deconstruct Lamanite identity, reconsider our truth claims, and move Indigenous voices to the center of our analysis.