Arnold Murphy, known as Ron by his family and friends, is from the Anaham or Tletinqox Government, but did not grow up there. He grew up in a logging sawmill camp on the East Arm of Quesnel Lake. He was given freedom to explore at a very young age and did a lot of fishing and his mother taught him to snare rabbits and how to get grouse.

When he reached six years old, his mother took him to the Saint Joseph Mission Residential School, just outside Williams Lake. He went to the residential school from 1968 – 1975. This had a tremendous impact on his life.

When he was 19 years old he met his wife Elsie and they had a daughter, Dawn, in 1984. He now has 5 grandchildren, 3 boys and 2 girls. He also has two younger sisters.

Arnold worked at carpentry most of his life and always like Cabinet Making and received his journeyman in that trade in 1991. It was during this time that he started learning the songs and singing with Coyote Rock which was a drum group from Alkali Lake. They taught him how to respect the drum and he learned all the protocols involved with being a part of the drum group.

He was friends with a man that shared his cultural knowledge and helped him start going to ceremonies. From then on he started his vision quests and learned who he really was as a man. He gained his personal identity through ceremonies, dancing and singing and still attends sweats and ceremonies to this day which helped him heal from his residential school experiences.