Indigenous Research & Mormon Studies (Journal Article)

[hemopereki]

Kia Ora,

A few weeks ago my first Mormon Studies journal article was published it centers on Indigenous Research & Mormon Studies. It is part of a series I am publishing.

Ngā mihi, Hemopereki.

Here is the link and details:

https://nsjcp.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/article/view/97

Hoea Te Waka ki Uta: Critical Kaupapa Māori Research and Mormon Studies Moving Forward

Abstract:

The following is a reflective commentary on the place of Critical Indigenous Studies, with a focus on Kaupapa Māori Research, within Mormon Studies. Specifically, the piece explores the following questions: What does Kaupapa Māori Research look like when engaging in Mormon Studies? What positionality needs to be taken by Kaupapa Māori researchers and Critical Indigenous scholars when engaging in Mormon Studies? What are the main areas Critical Indigenous scholars and Kaupapa Māori scholars should engage when tackling issues around Mormonism? These questions are important in light of the growing importance of the cultural renaissance in Te Ao Māori and the rise of Kaupapa Māori Research.

[Ignacio Garcia]

Fascinating article and very helpful in my bringing together my own keynote address, but I do wonder when you talk about writing..without accountability—whether someone who does not fully understand Global Mormon studies and has not engaged personally with the reality of the “Lamanite experience” really has any accountability in writing about “Lamanite studies” in Mormonism. I say this, not as a criticism, but as an observation since I too will deal with the writing of “Lamanite identity” by non-indigenous, non-LDS or those with an anti-Mormon perspective. Since all identity and all ethnicities are a social construction of a people’s reality, how do we develop the parameters, and should we?. You seem to take that position when it comes to Maori research, and I’m somewhat torn between believing or rejecting that notion about Chicano studies and Latino Mormon studies, and now Lamanite studies.

 

I think all of us will have some real gems to ponder over when this workshop is over. Thank you for getting us going even before we gather and council together.

 

Ignacio

Ps welcome to our little, but growing GMS.

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[hemopereki]

Kia Ora & Hola Ignacio,

Great to connect virtually. I can't make it so I might as well start now. lol

You raise some awesome provocations for me. Which I will begin by stating that current theory frames in Mormon Studies and more broadly the emergence of Lamanite Studies are very inadequte to deal with indigenous experience. With Mormon Studies scholars a significant problem is that they don't understand Indigenous Studies and/or Settler Colonialism. Best example I can come up with is the woefully inadequate panel put together by UVA's Mormon Studies program in March 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdQ3Y4lWNg&t=3s 

writing..without accountability—whether someone who does not fully understand Global Mormon studies and has not engaged personally with the reality of the “Lamanite experience” really has any accountability in writing about “Lamanite studies” in Mormonism. 

Your comment is interesting as Kaupapa Maori research has been formally established for 31 years now and its theory base has established other pathways forward for indigenous research like Standpoint theory research in Australia. So in the indigenous world this position on accountabilty is very well established. In Mormon Studies my emphsis on this particularly towards the end is about apologetic research, which is not scholarship if you start with a preconcived outcome ie The Church is always true. or white people writing or commenting on indigeneity. eg panel video  Garrett's responses or the question that was not asked for the Tongan research - should I be doing this in the first place and is a non-Pacific institution the right place to doing it from? Also the lack of understanding that once you do do it it is not optional to say "I might in the future" 19th century Anthrpology "data dashing" died and you have an obligation to continue those relationships and understand their needs and provide for them. This also comes with learning the language and culture significantly enough (to say be able to teach a linguistics or culture course)  Sorry, but sometimes with indigenous research some things just need to be said for ethical puposes and things non-indigenous people don't consider. For Mormon Studies scholars who want to do Lamanite issues understanding key foundational indigenous research texts would be significantly helpful like this standard: Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

Since all identity and all ethnicities are a social construction of a people’s reality, how do we develop the parameters, and should we? 

As for Lamanitism as an identity what a lot of Mormon Studies scholars do realise is the identity is settler colonial. They don't see the church as being an invading force and how it is like a settler government. I also note with say DNA studies (sorry am going there) - do Lamanites actually exist? I know Navajo, Blackfoot, Tuhoe, Maya etc do. If the Church was never given birth to by settler/invader (this use depends on scholarly perspective) Church members on indigenous lands would this dicussion be taking place about Lamanite identity? How is it a true identity? Is it more a religious signifier? Sorry for answering questions with questions but I'm also seeking answers to these questions or at least build growing interest to answer these. I think increasing dialouge is crucial.

You seem to take that position when it comes to Maori research, and I’m somewhat torn between believing or rejecting that notion about Chicano studies and Latino Mormon studies, and now Lamanite studies.

Funny you say that because the next article I have coming is the theory framework which will raise significant questions and thinking. Also more recently I have read a work in progress from an established Mormon Studies scholar that has me seriously reconsidering or wanting to "reframe" Lamanite Studies. The reoccuring problem/theme in all this research in lack of Mormon Studies engagement with Indigenous Studies 

Ignacio the comments above aren't targeting your post or comments I just feel that if we are going to have a conversation that is honest, academic and responsible about "Lamanites" and/or Indigeneity - Mormon Studies has a lot it needs to be accountable for. So somethings need to be said and considered not by you but more broadly.

Great dialouge happening here.

Hemopereki

[Jason Palmer]

Very excited to Zoom in on August 5^th for the public presentations. 

As a settler scholar with various conflicting commitments, this conversation could not have come at a better time. I am now confident that I should not have collected the data that I collected regarding Mormonism and indigeneity. But now that I did collect it, is it more unethical to sit on it than it is to publish it? I promised my largely Lamanite-indentifying study participants that I would publish it. They put in a lot of work to get me to tell their story in the way that they want it told. Yet, I know that I, raised in the settler society of a fundamentally white supremacist church, am not equiped to ethically tell their story.

Homopereki, could you explain a little more what you mean by the following? "Also the lack of understanding that once you do do it it is not optional to say "I might in the future" 19th century Anthrpology "data dashing" died and you have an obligation to continue those relationships and understand their needs and provide for them." 

Thanks, Jason

---

From: globalmor...@googlegroups.com <globalmor...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of hemopereki <hemop...@gmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2022 04:09 PM

To: Global Mormon Studies <globalmor...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: Indigenous Research & Mormon Studies (Journal Article)

 

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/globalmormonstudies/1863e314-34d8-408a-888b-39bac91b8249n%40googlegroups.com.

[Ignacio Garcia]

tell it . just let them speak for themselves and you give your readers context. but one that does not silence the Lamanite voices.

Ignacio M. Garcia

Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr.

Professor of Western & Latino History

(801) 422-4387

---

From: globalmor...@googlegroups.com <globalmor...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jason Palmer <jasonchar...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2022 6:09 PM
To: hemopereki <hemop...@gmail.com>; Global Mormon Studies <globalmor...@googlegroups.com>

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/globalmormonstudies/VI1PR06MB60304FE00F612C442294821CD38F9%40VI1PR06MB6030.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[hemopereki]

Kia Ora Jason,

Thanks for the contribution and response. (General Note this message is meant to reply to specifically to Jason's situation

Hemopereki, could you explain a little more what you mean by the following? "Also the lack of understanding that once you do do it it is not optional to say "I might in the future" 19th century Anthropology "data dashing" died and you have an obligation to continue those relationships and understand their needs and provide for them." 

Ok so common situation back then and still today white anthropologist comes in stays say 2 months goes back to home institution publishes paper on haka, for example from all the knowledge and qualitative data they mined out of indigenous group, say Ngati Ruanui, becomes white people's perceived "expert" on topic. Does not reengage to see if what they are saying is correct or representative of groups that think like haka is a war dance (which it isn't) Built their career on "data dashing" as in dash in, then quickly dash out again. because Anthropolgy doesn't see indigenous people as political being/actor responding to social reality or in a lot of cases and living even we are still here to to the white desire settler colonial dream and die off and/or to be defined, fetigised orientalised and gazed upon. (this is reflective in current definitions of Lamanite Studies) 

If you are going to do Lamanite/Indigenous research, focus on one group of indigenous people, say Inuit learn the culture/language, build credibility and proceed from there with your masters / PhD. Be sincere about things (not the it all about me this what I want to do Georgetown/Havard/Stanford/generic american institution here will let me.) When you  choose to come into indigenous spaces as a researcher, set yourself up with the idea that I am here to facilitate a voice for this group including if you are coming into academia where are you going to be based to facilitate this? Oxford may be a great University but if your research is related to Navajo for example why aren't you at NAU, UNM, ASU etc? There is more to this and as a disclaimer this is not representative just my understanding on indigenous research conversations. From a Māori perspective a good role model in this space is Prof. Alison Jones Check out her work it will help you Jason particularly the book chapter in  Hoskins, Te Kawehau, and Alison Jones, eds. Critical conversations in kaupapa Maori. Huia Publishers, 2017.

How do you provide for recognition of indigenoue group and/or accountability?

For recognition particularly for knowledge holders you maybe writing the paper but significant indigenous contributors in the "whānau (family or parties) of interest" in the research outcome. you may want to give them second author credit. Doing this also acknowledges openly where the actual knowledge come from. (Make sure you list their nation identity as in Joe Bloggs (Navajo) or Jill Whare (Ngāti Awa) on the authour line of the article if you doing this increasingly this is becoming important. Write with established Indigenous Scholar. Shameless plug of my research lol implement methods that have accountability built in (and if your creating them name and claim them for your research group use (particularly in future potential scholars that may come from them)) by utilising their language and culture to justify the method's existence like I have done here with social media https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/100071 . Also great article if you want to understand settler colonialism from an indigenous perspective.

This whole area in terms of Lamanites, Mormons, Indigeneity is very fast moving, really still developing, and has an infrastructure problem and the perspective I weild is very privileged. Firstly me - I am very unique in this area culturally raised language speaker on my people's land who is critically trained as an indigenous scholar who goes everywhere as I am interdisciplinary in a context wher cultural revival has been happening for over 40 years now and as a pan-national indigenous group as "Māori" (this is not my people it is used like Native American) in comparision to elsewhere we are doing very well and we passed 500 PhD qualified researchers about 8 years ago. We are probably around 800-900 of us now) I also happen to be a never-Mormon who spent 13 years trying to understand this social setting before publishing. In the indigenous world I am priviledged. to have this context and background. I am priviledged and my research and people benefit from it. I would expect more research coming from us not outsiders by the likes of Gina Colvin, Byron Rangiwai, Joseph Te Rito, now me etc. We can more effectively hold our own. For a lot of indigenous groups what I describe above is considered a luxury and a dream or aspiration yet to be achieved. This is where  the infrasturture problem is 1) There aren't enough Mormon Studies scholars emerging or established required that are indigenous - that is a reality - far more important issues to deal with in Indigenous world - is a problem 2) Because Lamanite Studies is so very new there are huge gaping holes everywhere that need plugging. There is space here for non-indigenous scholars to make great contributions. I am far from discouraging you from publishing what you have. Actual the opposite there is a path for you to do that could be really valuable to everyone. However, be mindful of two things - context and approach.

 The more contesting of space that takes place and with the passage of time I can eaisly see indigenous studies theory and indigenous research practice become more deeply embeded within Mormon Studies. However, for your current situation Jason - Approach is everything given these realities facing the field.  how you are responding to these fast moving development? what has taken place or published for you respond in this why? what are you doing to bring forth indigenous perspectives /preferences/ ways of doing things? Are you know that you (say better) know moving to understand and learn host culture and language now? Do you have mentors from that culture? Are there ways I can follow up on current research with newer helpful outcomes? how am I giving back to community? Am I consistantly present showing face and am known and trusted by the wider community or in my context known as kānohi kitea or the seen face. Don't be the show 2 months never see you again world expert that knows nothing in reality. If you approach things with sincereity, kindness and understand your obligations to group research interest fine doors may continue to open to you. For example you are a seat warmer - you are there to uplift our own to one day occupy your seat. You are for now our tool to give voice. If your going to approach it like Tongan Lamanite Identity Scholar and their reflective comments of my priviledge "I might" then you open yourself to major critique. It is also a reflection of how US Universities engaging in Mromon Studies and how they inadequately equip their PhDs for engagement in indigenous spaces.  

Approach is everything given these realities facing the field  

In the case you describe co-create a framework for accountability. Making sure that frame also accounts for non-Mormon indigenous perspective from that group. So if the group identifies as Lamanite and happends to be Hopi for example from the outside build good lasting productive relationship with established Hopi scholars to produce that framework. If they happen to be non-Mormon you will need to explain the importance and recognise that your timeframe and white priviledge is not a priority in the indigenous world and that your position will always be as the junior partner.

 I think incresingly from indigenous studies perspectives this is where a significant branch of Lamanite Studies will head - towards contexualisation as in Hopi responses to Lamanites or Lamanite Identity or Childhood experiences of Lamanite Indentity within the Hopi Nation. Increasingly context will be everything. I also expect this research landscpe to change rapidly in the next 5-10 years and significant debates to emerge that don't exist today. I mean moving forward this is where groundbreaking stuff in Mormon Studies is going to happen. A key problem with Lamanite identity is that is a large multiple groups of indigenous peoples and can't be defined well enough or from a indigenous perspective two key questions: does it exist? and if it does how? what does it represesent? how does that tie to indigenous-Church social realities or settings? eg Church leader arguing that if your indigenous identity fets in the way of your faith do away with your indigeneity

For Lamanite Studies and growing new area one of the key ares for non-indigenous engagement would really be Jason if you publish that data to follow it up with reflective and methodological pieces the critique, inform, sustain, develop this area of research. On this note I find my distraction writing these two posts productive and there is an very easy journal article here for the new Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association. Your part would be in it would be to describe how you responsed to this emerging framework - how did you become accountable retrospectively in response to this dialouge as a non-indigenous researcher in this space? I'm always open to collabs. Will start writing this tonight.

Ignacio: totally however, in saying that I don't have a problem with indigenous people who personally want to be Mormon/identify as Lamanite. However, provisio - As long as the Church provides an avenue for considered informed consent. Eg issues - Polyandry, Translation/Seeer Stone/Hat, Polygamy in Heaven, Openess about Gospel Topics Essays etc. Lastly in this regard for Māori our significant advancement towards decolonisation and by association secularism and enculturalisation places us in a unique situation where Lamanite identity is vastly disappearing from and dying in terms of the cultural and social landscape I think this is discussed somewhat here from memory: https://www.athoughtfulfaith.org/272-a-maori-reflection-on-lds-church-culture-and-discipline-mahuika-rangiwai-hikairo/ It is more present in our old people but anyone under say 40 you would be hard pressed to find them say they are Lamanite 

Wow. This is great. 

Hemopereki

Note: To my indigenous brothers and sisters that may read these two posts in the future. If I have caused offence or used your people's name without permission I sincerely apologise with humility. The comments here are being used to educate and bring about common undestandings about us as indigenous peoples and our realities no offence was ever intended.

[Becky Schulthies]

Dear Jason,

In the spirit of what hemopereki is encouraging, perhaps you might ask those who shared their experiences with you how they would like you to analyze and represent it instead of deciding yourself based on your evolving positionality. Even if they previously expressed that they wanted you to publish it, confirm: collaborating with instead of deciding for is more of the decolonizing approach. It is not enough to "give voice": metapragmatics, audience, publication venue, collective/individual authorship--all these decisions should be made together rather than decided by the scholar. That means taking time to explain the social, political, and economic work that specific publication venues, modalities, and genres do and for whom. Then you let them decide what to do with "the data".

Warmly,

Becky

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/globalmormonstudies/VI1PR06MB60304FE00F612C442294821CD38F9%40VI1PR06MB6030.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com.

--

Becky Schulthies

[Ignacio Garcia]

Jason,

 

Regardless of how we try, we do not escape the reality of what occurs when we engage in research of groups outside of our own. There is no way to really express their views purely, or without a trace of the impact of scholarly assumptions, of which there are many and some very destructive. You can spend the rest of your life trying to figure it out, and you won’t because there are some things that simply come with an organic experience. Most scholars who tell you otherwise rarely live up to that standard. Just look at their work. Not being of that community, you need to make a choice of whether you should do it or not

 

As a scholar you have to publish, or you will definitely perish. What you should do is assess what you are doing, and ask yourself and those who know, if you are capable of doing it right, if the voices of those you write about come out clearly and are you making assumptions that come out of your own experience sand not of those whom you interviewed and are writing about. Which, of course, is what most scholars do anyway.

 

Beyond that, it is foolish to assume you can get it all right as someone not of that community. Heck, even we who are from those communities don’t always get it right. That is why it is important for Lamanite historiography to continue to expand, to become more diverse, and to be open. The only real protection from us making erroneous and hurtful literature, is for open discussions, a review process by those who are both interested and knowledgeable of the topic, and by an attitude that you have much to learn and will never know all you need to know about the studied community.

 

If this is too complicated, this is probably not the place for you. At the same time, you have an obligation to those you interviewed. No one can tell you what to do, though many will offer to do so.

 

Much of the reaction you will get is a pushback by a community of scholars who have seen a very one-sided approach to the history and discussion of their people. Their first reaction is to say you have no business doing this. Legitimate, but not very realistic given how many white scholars—many of them truly interested in doing it right—seek to do work on those communities outside of their own. Hemopereki’s advice is the safest, and less complicated, while Becky’s is the hardest, because it is likely that those you interviewed will be confused since they gave you their trust, already. Talk to them if you follow the latter advice but know that they are unlikely to be able to give you the advice you seek as a scholar because they are not likely to have engaged in those discussions before, though some might have.

 

 

Ignacio

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/globalmormonstudies/CAJcagcsR56D-0jodtb2ApudhsXzY0ECVMD_9ZULnPFB_cth5pg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jason Palmer]

Hemopereki,

Thank you for the time and energy that your response took. I will digest everything, including Linda Tuhiwai Smith's book. I wish that I had known going into my research with the University of California, Irvine anthropology department how much Native Studies would end up playing the principal role in my now 8-year-long project. You are very correct that the US academy ill prepares PhD students for any engagement with Native Studies and settler colonial studies. 

Of course, such ill preparation is no accident. It is a feature of the settler colony, not an anomaly. Therefore, it cannot be "fixed" without destroying the settler colony. As my scholar-hero Nick Estes always says, "you cannot unbake a cake." Settler colonial states and institutions are irredeamable.

Treating indigeneity with any level of ethics and critical engagement would mean recognizing that the "postcolonial" has not yet happened in the US. The US has successfuly disguised itself as a state that has somehow already decolonized. Removing that disguise would mean the end of the US settler state, the end of its precious universities, and--apropos of this conversation-- the end of its paradigmatic church. 

Adding to this irony, my study participants do not identify as "Indigenous" per se, they only identify as "Lamanite" (and that identification only happens when I ask them if they "identify as" Lamanite). So, both the macro and microlevel contexts are full of contradictions. Put differently, many of my study participants did not think about their indigeneity (except to mute any signs of it) until they became Mormon, at which time they (at first "data dash" glance) adopted the settler colonist version of a "proper" indigeneity that knows its place (entertainment, folklore, "flavor," scriptural foil) in the hegemonic white supremacist hierarchy. This sounds like the opposite of the Māori situation that you describe, and it would be fascinating to collaborate on a comparison piece. 

Incidentally, I did publish an article in JMSSA's innaugural issue that has not come out yet. It is something about matriarchal patriarchy among my study participants (who are Peruvian Mormons by the way). When it comes out, I'd love to hear your opinion of the ways in which my article meets/fails to meet the requirements for non-Indigenous engagement with indegeneity.  Here is another article that I recently published if you're interested: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/4/246/htm (I just read through it again and am already cringing about some aspects)

Religions | Free Full-Text | Be Careful, Ye Catholic: The Entanglement of Mormonism and Money in Peru | HTML - MDPI Globalization is not only the feverish insistence that land’s superfluity is increasing exponentially, but it is also the willful ignorance of the reality underlying that illusion: Distance has not been annihilated. Distance, and the land it spans, is more important than ever. Globalization imagines away the land’s importance because of whom it imagines to be “of the land”. This entity ... www.mdpi.com

I'm excited to read your articles and to be involved in this rapidly evolving field. My hesitation to enter the fray comes from knowing that my own "settler awakening" is evolving so rapidly that my previous articles/chapters already seem racist to me. My attempts at utlizing "decolonizing" methodoligies now will inevitably be considered anti-indigenous in a few years. Though this is daunting, I also find it encouraging because it will mean that the standards of scholarship in the future will have become less and less dependant on propping up the redeamability of the settler state and its religious institutions. 

As an integral part of and beneficiary of the US settler state, it is my responsibility to do my nitche part to end the US genocidal occupation of Abya Yala and other lands. 

Yet--and this is where the principal conflict in Lamanite studies arrises--that responsibility puts me at odds with my responsability to my study participants. My study participants are loyal to a church that is inexorably intertwined with the US settler state (also with the New Zealand settler state?) such that the Mormon church will fall when the settler state falls. 

How can I be committed to hastening both the fall of the church and the rise of my study participants who love the church? 

All I know is that I am fully committed to both. That makes my writing of my study participants' culture fully contradictory, which I guess is what makes it fully human.

I'd love to keep in touch and collaborate more. 

Jason

 

---

From: Hemopereki Hoani Simon <hemop...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2022 11:45 PM
To: Jason Palmer <jasonchar...@hotmail.com>

Subject: Re: Indigenous Research & Mormon Studies (Journal Article)

Kia Ora Jason,

Thanks for the contribution and response.

Hemopereki, could you explain a little more what you mean by the following? "Also the lack of understanding that once you do do it it is not optional to say "I might in the future" 19th century Anthropology "data dashing" died and you have an obligation to continue those relationships and understand their needs and provide for them." 

Ok so common situation back then and still today white anthropologist comes in stays say 2 months goes back to home institution publishes paper on haka, for example from all the knowledge and qualitative data they mined out of indigenous group, say Ngati Ruanui, becomes white people's perceived "expert" on topic. Does not reengage to see if what they are saying is correct or representative of groups that think like haka is a war dance (which it isn't) Built their career on "data dashing" as in dash in, then quickly dash out again. because Anthropolgy doesn't see indigenous people as political being/actor responding to social reality or in a lot of cases and living even we are still here to to the white desire settler colonial dream and die off and/or to be defined, fetigised orientalised and gazed upon. (this is reflective in current definitions of Lamanite Studies) 

If you are going to do Lamanite/Indigenous research, focus on one group of indigenous people, say Inuit learn the culture/language, build credibility and proceed from there with your masters / PhD. Be sincere about things (not the it all about me this what I want to do Georgetown/Havard/Stanford/generic american institution here will let me.) When you  choose to come into indigenous spaces as a researcher, set yourself up with the idea that I am here to facilitate a voice for this group including if you are coming into academia where are you going to be based to facilitate this? Oxford may be a great University but if your research is related to Navajo for example why aren't you at NAU, UNM, ASU etc? There is more to this and as a disclaimer this is not representative just my understanding on indigenous research conversations. From a Māori perspective a good role model in this space is Prof. Alison Jones Check out her work it will help you Jason particularly the book chapter in  Hoskins, Te Kawehau, and Alison Jones, eds. Critical conversations in kaupapa Maori. Huia Publishers, 2017.

How do you provide for recognition of indigenoue group and/or accountability?

For recognition particularly for knowledge holders you maybe writing the paper but significant indigenous contributors in the "whānau (family or parties) of interest" in the research outcome. you may want to give them second author credit. Doing this also acknowledges openly where the actual knowledge come from. (Make sure you list their nation identity as in Joe Bloggs (Navajo) or Jill Whare (Ngāti Awa) on the authour line of the article if you doing this increasingly this is becoming important. Write with established Indigenous Scholar. Shameless plug of my research lol implement methods that have accountability built in (and if your creating them name and claim them for your research group use (particularly in future potential scholars that may come from them)) by utilising their language and culture to justify the method's existence like I have done here with social media https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/100071 . Also great article if you want to understand settler colonialism from an indigenous perspective.

This whole area in terms of Lamanites, Mormons, Indigeneity is very fast moving, really still developing, and has an infrastructure problem and the perspective I weild is very privileged. Firstly me - I am very unique in this area culturally raised language speaker on my people's land who is critically trained as an indigenous scholar who goes everywhere as I am interdisciplinary in a context wher cultural revival has been happening for over 40 years now and as a pan-national indigenous group as "Māori" (this is not my people it is used like Native American) in comparision to elsewhere we are doing very well and we passed 500 PhD qualified researchers about 8 years ago. We are probably around 800-900 of us now) I also happen to be a never-Mormon who spent 13 years trying to understand this social setting before publishing. In the indigenous world I am priviledged. to have this context and background. I am priviledged and my research and people benefit from it. I would expect more research coming from us not outsiders by the likes of Gina Colvin, Byron Rangiwai, Joseph Te Rito, now me etc. We can more effectively hold our own. For a lot of indigenous groups what I describe above is considered a luxury and a dream or aspiration yet to be achieved. This is where  the infrasturture problem is 1) There aren't enough Mormon Studies scholars emerging or established required that are indigenous - that is a reality - far more important issues to deal with in Indigenous world - is a problem 2) Because Lamanite Studies is so very new there are huge gaping holes everywhere that need plugging. There is space here for non-indigenous scholars to make great contributions. I am far from discouraging you from publishing what you have. Actual the opposite there is a path for you to do that could be really valuable to everyone. However, be mindful of two things - context and approach.

 The more contesting of space that takes place and with the passage of time I can eaisly see indigenous studies theory and indigenous research practice become more deeply embeded within Mormon Studies. However, for your current situation Jason - Approach is everything given these realities facing the field.  how you are responding to these fast moving development? what has taken place or published for you respond in this why? what are you doing to bring forth indigenous perspectives /preferences/ ways of doing things? Are you know that you (say better) know moving to understand and learn host culture and language now? Do you have mentors from that culture? Are there ways I can follow up on current research with newer helpful outcomes? how am I giving back to community? Am I consistantly present showing face and am known and trusted by the wider community or in my context known as kānohi kitea or the seen face. Don't be the show 2 months never see you again world expert that knows nothing in reality. If you approach things with sincereity, kindness and understand your obligations to group research interest fine doors may continue to open to you. For example you are a seat warmer - you are there to uplift our own to one day occupy your seat. You are for now our tool to give voice. If your going to approach it like Tongan Lamanite Identity Scholar and their reflective comments of my priviledge "I might" then you open yourself to major critique. It is also a reflection of how US Universities engaging in Mromon Studies and how they inadequately equip their PhDs for engagement in indigenous spaces.  

Approach is everything given these realities facing the field  

In the case you describe co-create a framework for accountability. Making sure that frame also accounts for non-Mormon indigenous perspective from that group. So if the group identifies as Lamanite and happends to be Hopi for example from the outside build good lasting productive relationship with established Hopi scholars to produce that framework. If they happen to be non-Mormon you will need to explain the importance and recognise that your timeframe and white priviledge is not a priority in the indigenous world and that your position will always be as the junior partner.

 I think incresingly from indigenous studies perspectives this is where a significant branch of Lamanite Studies will head - towards contexualisation as in Hopi responses to Lamanites or Lamanite Identity or Childhood experiences of Lamanite Indentity within the Hopi Nation. Increasingly context will be everything. I also expect this research landscpe to change rapidly in the next 5-10 years and significant debates to emerge that don't exist today. I mean moving forward this is where groundbreaking stuff in Mormon Studies is going to happen. A key problem with Lamanite identity is that is a large multiple groups of indigenous peoples and can't be defined well enough or from a indigenous perspective two key questions: does it exist? and if it does how? what does it represesent? how does that tie to indigenous-Church social realities or settings? eg Church leader arguing that if your indigenous identity fets in the way of your faith do away with your indigeneity

For Lamanite Studies and growing new area one of the key ares for non-indigenous engagement would really be Jason if you publish that data to follow it up with reflective and methodological pieces the critique, inform, sustain, develop this area of research. On this note I find my distraction writing these two posts productive and there is an very easy journal article here for the new Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association. Your part would be in it would be to describe how you responsed to this emerging framework - how did you become accountable retrospectively in response to this dialouge as a non-indigenous researcher in this space? I'm always open to collabs. Will start writing this tonight.

Ignacoio: totally however, in saying that I don't have a problem with indigenous people who personally want to be Mormon/identify as Lamanite. However, provisio - As long as the Church provides an avenue for considered informed consent. Eg issues - Polyandry, Translation/Seeer Stone/Hat, Polygamy in Heaven, Openess about Gospel Topics Essays etc. Lastly in this regard for Māori our significant advancement towards decolonisation and by association secularism and enculturalisation places us in a unique situation where Lamanite identity is vastly disappearing from and dying in terms of the cultural and social landscape I think this is discussed somewhat here from memory: https://www.athoughtfulfaith.org/272-a-maori-reflection-on-lds-church-culture-and-discipline-mahuika-rangiwai-hikairo/ It is more present in our old people but anyone under say 40 you would be hard pressed to find them say they are Lamanite 

Wow. This is great. 

Hemopereki

Note: To my indigenous brothers and sisters that may read these two posts in the future. If I have caused offence or used your people's name without permission I sincerely apologise with humility. The comments here are being used to educate and bring about common undestandings about us as indigenous peoples and our realities no offence was ever intended.

[Jason Palmer]

Becky and Ignacio,

Excellent advice from both of you. Luckily, I have the type of relationship with my inner circle of study participants that I can publish things that they disagree with, yet they still decide to allow me to publish more. And I decide to accept their decision. I'm presenting at Sunstone next week about a composite character (which I often create to protect annonymity as pseudonyms are not enough in the small world of Peruvian Mormonism), the principle personality of whom stems from a particular study participant who is simultaneously horrified and tickled by my presentation, which I've translated and practiced in her presence. She knows that "la gringada" in me will get things wrong from her perspective, but she likes collaborating with me anyway. However, I know that her blessing does not liberate me from the strictures of the ethical methodologies that you all mention. 

Anyway, I feel like this conversation has shifted to what is essentially my white guilt. I'd like to shift it back to an ethical framework for Lamanite Studies that Hemopereki alluded to. 

If the possibility of such a framework resonates with the Global Mormon Studies community, I'm sure we'll hear a lot about it at the upcoming Lamanite conference!

Jason 

---

From: Ignacio Garcia <Ignacio...@byu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2022 07:56 AM
To: Becky Schulthies <bschu...@gmail.com>; Jason Palmer <jasonchar...@hotmail.com>
Cc: hemopereki <hemop...@gmail.com>; Global Mormon Studies <globalmor...@googlegroups.com>

[Ryan Davis]

Dear colleagues,

A few thoughts. . .

For all the talk about ethical approaches to communities, I find it startling to read of a commitment to "hastening both the fall of the church and the rise of my study participants who love the church."  Such an approach suggests to me a certain affinity with the apologetics approach Hemopereki noted. The assumption here is that the framework Jason is using is the one, true framework rather than simply one way among many of framing an issue. What if Jason's study participants do not share his commitment to the fall of the church? It seems he has painted himself into a philosophical corner--any indigenous subject who also happens to uphold the church must suffer from false consciousness. 

Certain theoretical/critical frameworks may well provide timely and beneficial insights/approaches/correctives/etc. to other frameworks, but they are no less immune to becoming totalizing discourses themselves. The language of irredeemability seems to gesture in the totalizing direction. It is one thing for imperfect people trained in imperfect research communities to be (made) aware of their imperfections and to approach their research with greater responsibility and sensitivity. To write off entire institutions as irredeemable and to be committed to their fall sounds less like academic research and more like something else (political activism?) 

As Ignacio has stated, there are certain experiences that are simply inaccessible to us as individuals. But the in-group / out-group phenomenon, in my view, is best viewed as a starting point for responsible scholarship. In this email thread here, there seems to be an assumption that in-group perspectives are always already superior to out-group perspectives simply as a function of their in-group-ness. I recall an exam on which a student claimed that because they were X (ethnic identity), their response to a question about certain literary works by authors who were also X was ipso facto valid. In their view, their status as X outweighed their (rather profound) lack of understanding of X literary history. 

Ryan

-----

Ryan A. Davis

Professor of Hispanic Studies

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Illinois State University-Campus Box 4300 
Normal, IL 61790
(309) 438 - 7759

rda...@ilstu.edu

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/globalmormonstudies/VI1PR06MB60308FC17C39177A621290D7D38E9%40VI1PR06MB6030.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[Wilfried Decoo]

Dear all,

On the topic of Mormon insider/outsider research perspectives, allow me to point to this article (Sage, Open Epub):

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/16094069211063706

Disclosure: Ellen is my daughter 🙂

"This article discusses insider/outsider perspectives in qualitative research among religious people. Focus is on the insider researcher. Even if researcher and participants share the same overall religious adherence or are members of the same denomination, various factors can differentiate them substantially, affecting insider/outsider perspectives. The methodological implications of this phenomenon are drawn from research on the perception of gender roles among Mormon women in Belgium. The mutual perception of researcher and participant can influence the data collection phase as value-laden issues are being discussed. ..."

Warm regards,

Wilfried

[Jason Palmer]

Correct Ryan. I would consider myself an activist anthropologist. Correct also that my study participants do not agree with my commitment to help end the US settler state. Incorrect that I think they suffer from a false conciousness. 

I think the LDS Church will not survive the fall of the US settler state, but Peruvian Mormonism and many other global Mormonisms will.

---

From: Ryan Davis <r.da...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2022 09:48 AM
To: Jason Palmer <jasonchar...@hotmail.com>
Cc: Ignacio Garcia <Ignacio...@byu.edu>; Becky Schulthies <bschu...@gmail.com>; hemopereki <hemop...@gmail.com>; Global Mormon Studies <globalmor...@googlegroups.com>

[hemopereki]

Yesterday & Today I did a lot self reflection and writing and have come up with some great ideas.

in discussions with indigenous and non-indigenous colleagues we came to the conclusion that what I wrote to Jason was fine. My existential crisis I was having when I wrote that suggesting there in a place for white people in indigenous research spaces and the approach etc is fine in Mormon Studies and in particular Lamanite Studies . I wanted to add that validity is brought about in these spaces not through triangulation but group valid with the proviso that the power in the research shifts to the group being Studied. You have to publish but behind that publishing you seriously need to publish methodological articles as the further Lamanite Studies develops the questions are going to be asked or challenges to your work. How was it done? is another form of accountability. Context. Approach. Accountability.

Also when you write non-academic jargon loaded language, who are you publishing, big one - is it open access (accountability), thinking in this area need huge development. Your context is problematic you think indigenous - they say lamanite - wow how did you deal with that what approached you took? anything you would do differently next time? How does Ethnography impact what you did? Lamanite Studies as a largely brand new field needs more work and publications to define, massage, critique, build foundations, etc. Methodological approaches documenting them for accountability for white scholars in this area is where it is at.

Insider/Outsider Researcher

Wilfried - lol that's awesome. In my research practice I would always advocate for insider does it but in Lamanite Studies it is duck shooting season. 

Lamanite Studies 

The definition is too narrow, its foundations in ethnohistory is flawed and a lot of thinking need to take place here. Part of the problem is that Lamanite by nature is Pan-Ethnic which is going to always cause problems. I think as a field that is emerging the best model I can come up with for its development is a tree.

Tree in ground that is double trunked. Why because I believe that the field must develop like Cultural Studies where there are two distinct approaches: historical and the other trunk sociological. There maybe two more distinct areas from that and that is Indigenous Branches and the other Latinx.I am actually getting this drawn up as we speak in Pakistan of all places. Thank you God for Internet.

I think where me and Ignacio clash on approach is that I think Ignacio is a faithful member who believes in Lamanites - hence when I show up there is conflict over me being outsider to Lamanite (Studies).

In the conversation on settler colonialism particularly from Jason there maybe a belief here that to question the Church's foundations in white supremacy and settler colonialism like the state will make the Church fall. I would argue the opposite as I have a model from the state to work from in https://nwo.org.nz/resources/report-of-matike-mai-aotearoa-the-independent-working-group-on-constitutional-transformation/

I say it in this paper subtly in the footnotes models exist in westerm religion in Aotearoa Anglicanism has become postcolonial. The foundation for a potential post colonial Church are there in the literature 

Murphy, T. W. (2018). Decolonization on the Salish Sea: A Tribal Journey back to Mormon Studies. Decolonizing Mormonism: Approaching a Postcolonial Zion (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2018), 47-66. 

The responsibility here is for Mormon Studies scholars to build what that model may look like. I have given you one for the NZ state. In terms of Postcolonialism that is dead died ages ago. However there are three essays here that would be of interest Jason.

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cpcs20/24/2

On that note one more for Jason on:

The Importance of Settler/Invader Responsibilities to Decolonisation and The Collective Future as Highlighted in Ngoi Pēwhairangi’s “Whakarongo” - https://www.journalofglobalindigeneity.com/section/2669-vol-5-issue-3-2021

 

Disclaimer My PhD is on the situation described by Jason on the state in Interdisciplinary Indigenous Politics. I also happen to be the expert on settler colonialism as it pertains to Aotearoa New Zealand. Clearly I am at an advantage here. I also wanted to know if this is relevant in the discussion of Lamanites? https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0309132516686011

[Ryan Davis]

Thanks for your response Jason. Lest I be misunderstood, I would like to clarify that I didn't say you think your participants suffer from false consciousness; it looked like that was the implications of your position, though. And it was that distinction that I was/am trying to understand. How do you understand your participants' commitment to the LDS church? Also, from a logistical perspective, how do your participants' respond when you tell them about your commitment to hastening the fall of the LDS church?  Is that something you disclose? Does it come up during the IRB process? 

Best,

Ryan

-----

Ryan A. Davis

Professor of Hispanic Studies

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Illinois State University-Campus Box 4300 
Normal, IL 61790
(309) 438 - 7759

rda...@ilstu.edu

[hemopereki]

Kia Ora Ryan 

Yeah ethics committees on issues of Indigeneity are lacking across the board. The best model I've since is University of Waikato. They have their own Indigenous Research Ethics Committee. Against Ethics frames like AIATSIS model this would be dicey if ethics in cases like this would be granted. 

H

[THOMAS MURPHY]

Hemopereki and Global Mormon Studies Group,

Thanks for the shout out. I have been following this conversation with significant interest, but at the same time that I'm trying to wrap up a presentation for the NEH Seminar on Mormons and Mexico at Claremont Graduate University and prepare for Sunstone and then the Indigenous Perspectives on Lamanite Identity workshop the following week. Neither of my upcoming presentations are ready to go. I wish I had time to say more but I will respond to the shout out pasted below.

In the conversation on settler colonialism particularly from Jason there maybe a belief here that to question the Church's foundations in white supremacy and settler colonialism like the state will make the Church fall. I would argue the opposite as I have a model from the state to work from in https://nwo.org.nz/resources/report-of-matike-mai-aotearoa-the-independent-working-group-on-constitutional-transformation/

I say it in this paper subtly in the footnotes models exist in westerm religion in Aotearoa Anglicanism has become postcolonial. The foundation for a potential post colonial Church are there in the literature 

Murphy, T. W. (2018). Decolonization on the Salish Sea: A Tribal Journey back to Mormon Studies. Decolonizing Mormonism: Approaching a Postcolonial Zion (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2018), 47-66. 

The responsibility here is for Mormon Studies scholars to build what that model may look like. I have given you one for the NZ state.

I appreciate the reference to my article from Decolonizing Mormonism where I attempt to apply what I learned from the application of decolonizing methodologies developed in tandem with Coast Salish communities to the aspiration of decolonizing Mormon studies. For those participants on this global list who may not have access to the book, I have made that article , "Decolonization on the Salish Sea: A Tribal Journey back to Mormon Studies," available for free at SSRN (click here). Ignacio Garcia has a great article in there as well. This is far from a polished template but it does give us a starting point (but one I also find difficult to implement within Mormon studies for some of the same reasons Jason mentions). The suggestions here from Ryan and Becky as well as Ignacio and Hemopereki have been helpful. I should note that I wrote a companion article for an anthropological rather than Mormon studies audience. This article is entitled, "'No One Asked for an Ethnography.' Reflections on Community-based Anthropology in Coast Salish Country," and is also available at SSRN. This article examines the disjuncture between my training and what I have actually done over the past couple of decades when I prioritized the goals, needs, and aspirations of Coast Salish communities. 

I am super excited for the Indigenous Perspectives on Lamanite Identity workshop at U of U and look forward to further discussions along this line. I am glad a portion will be public and encourage everyone on the list to register and participate online. In case anyone missed it I have attached the registration information. 

Jason, let's get together while we're both in SLC for Sunstone. If any other participants or lurkers in this conversation would like to get together in Salt Lake City during Sunstone (next week) drop Jason and me a private note. If you're not familiar with Sunstone the conference and registration information is available here. I think it would be productive to continue talking in person.

twm

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/globalmormonstudies/49d7ae12-9c14-4f90-8e48-73c6bd98023bn%40googlegroups.com.

[Ignacio Garcia]

thank you Thomas. I wl read the articles before I make any comments. my only thought for young scholars is to find your community and they will help you along. challenges always seem more daunting when you face them along.

Ignacio M. Garcia

Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr.

Professor of Western & Latino History

(801) 422-4387

---

From: 'THOMAS MURPHY' via Global Mormon Studies <globalmor...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2022 4:29 PM
To: hemopereki <hemop...@gmail.com>
Cc: Global Mormon Studies <globalmor...@googlegroups.com>

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/globalmormonstudies/CADczQLgBUeHe3BFu1P%2Bbd%3DJZGb%3DAJau%2BRGG0h-u5OZF3-M-Hjw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Ryan Davis]

Wilfried,

And let's not forget your article, "In Search of Mormon Identity," which contextualizes the challenges bound up with identity. 

Ryan

-----

Ryan A. Davis

Professor of Hispanic Studies

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Illinois State University-Campus Box 4300 
Normal, IL 61790
(309) 438 - 7759

rda...@ilstu.edu

[Sujey Vega]

I just wanted to briefly hop on here to say how much I've appreciated the rigor in ethics, deep reflexivity, and scholarly dialogue taking shape with this topic. As a Latina researcher who is not and never has been affiliated with the LDS Church, I consider myself existing in a unique bordered experienced. I share Latinidad but may not share religious identity with the folks I work with. Still, since first connecting with Latino LDS members 17 years ago, I have come to understand the rich complexity of identity and varying configurations of Lamanite ties across time and space in Latine Mormondom.

As someone who engages in migration politics as well, this conversation of settler colonialism is incredibly tricky for how it impacts the role of migration to settler occupied lands - as faculty at ASU, I'm always very aware of how our surrounding native communities differ in experience from Latine folks.  Mestizo immigrants inhabit a complicated relation to re-settling indigenous lands that we can be connected to, but in that process we are also displacing the indigenous communities that have long existed and traversed across modern geopolitical boundaries of gringolandia.  Similarly, there is a reality that many of us mestizo have colonizer blood woven throughout our veins and that makes for a complicated approach to this conversation. I think there is a lot of potential in exploring parallels with other Pasifika communities and welcome the chance to have these necessary global conversations. These are all ideas I am working through in my work and plan to unpack further thanks to this useful thread.

 I love seeing folks I've long known and admired (Ignacio, Jason, and Thomas) interact with folks that are entering my scholarly awareness.  Like Thomas, I'm also deep in the throes of trying to wrap up summer research/writing whilst planning courses and navigating the service load that comes with being a woman of color in academia. Still, I appreciate these moments of brief reprieve that spark new synapses in my thoughts on LDS experiences.

I thank you all for moving us toward these thorny, but necessary, dialogues. It has been what many of us have hungered for! 

Sujey Vega

Get Outlook for iOS

---

From: globalmor...@googlegroups.com <globalmor...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ryan Davis <r.da...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 6:48 AM
To: Wilfried Decoo <wilfrie...@byu.edu>
Cc: Global Mormon Studies <globalmor...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: Indigenous Research & Mormon Studies (Journal Article)

 

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[Ignacio Garcia]

When we first discussed developing this workshop, the intent was to look at Lamanite identity through lived experience, and personal reflection of both participants and those they studied, worked with, and even worshiped with. It was not intended that it be a discussion of Lamanite historiography nor even a discussion of settler colonialism or any other ism; not because those were not important, but because that was not the intent of the workshop. Most of us in the original group were historians—or engaged in history—and most of us came from a place—at least originally—of church membership, simply because there is no such thing as a Lamanite outside of the Mormon bubble. Engaging in understanding a Lamanite identity, means we have to take as a given that those who do self-identify, might have little recognition or appreciation of their indigenous background, but nonetheless claim it somehow in order to claim the identity. We all know it is a socially constructed term that has come to be attached to indigenous Latter-day Saints, but it has little application outside the aforementioned bubble because there is no real proof that this speaks to any indigenous reality. Thus, while indigenous studies might be somewhat helpful, they are not completely adequate to explain this identify unless we use it to attach the term Lamanite to a particular indigenous group. My sense is that Lamanite might be a conduit for someone to call themselves indigenous—that is, seeing myself as a Lamanite led me to see myself as a Chicano in my secular life--but an indigenous identity is not necessarily a conduit to seeing myself as a Lamanite unless I become a member of the LDS Church. Again, the term has no application outside Mormonism.

 

To get too theoretical without an understanding of why or how people claim or relate to that term is, to me, simply a scholarly game that has little application to identity itself. We can only study Lamanite-ism by accepting—for study purposes—assumption that self-describe Latter-day Saints have of themselves.

 

I’m sure there will be a lot of disappointment among some workshop participants with what I will say on Friday, but I’m hopeful that there will be others who will appreciate an historian’s take on the topic.

 

Ignacio

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[Jason Palmer]

Hi Sujey,

Another anthropologist in the house! I was feeling lonely. I loved your mujerista mormona chapter.

Hi Ignacio,

I agree with your approach. It is one that honors people who ontologically are Lamanites. I try to use that approach in what I publish about Lamanites. Beyond "identifying as," they are being. 

Being Lamanite can conflict with the institutional church just as much as with institutional Native studies because (correct me if I'm wrong) both institutions would like to phase out Lamanite identity.

Jason

---

From: globalmor...@googlegroups.com <globalmor...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ignacio Garcia <Ignacio...@byu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 04:21 PM
To: Sujey Vega <Sujey...@asu.edu>; Global Mormon Studies <globalmor...@googlegroups.com>

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/globalmormonstudies/PH0PR08MB65672F11DF0A9CA835A42750EA9B9%40PH0PR08MB6567.namprd08.prod.outlook.com.