Matika Wilbur

Matika Wilbur (born 1984), is a Native American photographer and educator from Washington state.^[2] She is an enrolled citizen of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington and a descendant of the Swinomish people.^[1] She is best known for her photography project, Project 562.

Matika Lorraine Wilbur was born on April 28, 1984. Her Native name is Tsa-Tsiq, meaning "She Who Teaches."^[2] She grew up in La Conner, Washington, where she was raised in a family of commercial fishermen, and graduated from La Conner High School.^[3] She received her bachelor's degree from the Brooks Institute of Photography in 2006.

After receiving her degree from the Brooks Institute of Photography, Wilbur began her career within the fashion industry and commercial work. Wilbur realized that these industries did not spark her interest and decided to choose a different route as a photographer.

Wilbur also received her teaching certification and worked in primary education at The Tulalip Heritage High School ^[4] for 5 years. There, she experienced firsthand the lack of educational resources to provide Native youths with positive imagery and understanding.

Wilbur's three initial photographic projects include We Are One People, a photograph collection of Coast Salish elders; We Emerge, a photograph collection of Native people in contemporary settings, and Save the Indian and Kill the Man, a collection of Native youth expressing their identities.^[5] Her other work includes "iHuman", presenting images interwoven with cedar bark.^[6][7]

"All Alone"^[8] is a 2012 project that addresses the cultural assimilation of Native Americans between the 1880–1980.

"iHuman"^[8] is a 2013 cultural project that represents the cultural dualism that Native Americans live upon.

The artist specializes in hand-tinted, black-and-white silver gelatin prints.^[3] She plans on publishing a book about her photography.^[9]

Project 562 is Wilbur's fourth major project to document contemporary Indigenous peoples, with the goal of photographing members of all US tribes on their tribal lands.^[3] Wilbur started "Project 562" as a photographic series in 2012. She began traveling across the United States in November of that year; she raised over $35,000 for her expenses in a Kickstarter campaign.^[10] She has since traveled 250,000 miles in her work to photograph indigenous people.^[11]

The title of the project refers to the number of Indigenous North American tribes officially recognized by the United States at the time Wilbur began the work. That number has since changed, reflecting the ongoing legal efforts of individual tribes to regain legal status after the decimation of tribal status under the United States Termination policy. Wilbur notes that her grandmother came to her in a dream suggesting she do this work.^{[citation needed]} She works collaboratively with tribal leaders and members to create the photographs.^[12] Wilbur conceives of Project 562 as an answer to Edward Curtis' photographs, a century earlier, of Indigenous Americans. Curtis took over 40,000 photographs of 80 tribes.^[13]

Wilbur also hosts the podcast "All My Relations" with Adrienne Keene. The podcast's purpose is "to explore our relationships— relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another. Each episode invites guests to delve into a different topic facing Native peoples today as we keep it real, play games, laugh a lot, and even cry sometimes".^[14]

• 2014: Photographic Presence and Contemporary Indians: Matika Wilbur's Project 562, Tacoma Art Museum, Washington^[15]
• 2014–2016: As We See It: Contemporary Native American Photographers, Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, Ekaterinburg, Russia; The Fifth Biennial of Contemporary Photography; Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia;^[16] 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM^[17]
• 2016: Seed of Culture: The Portraits and Stories of Native American Women, Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University^[18]
• March 13 - June 13, 2021: Whatcom Museum: Seeds of Culture, Bellingham, WA^[19]
• October, 2018 - January, 2018: El Segundo Museum of Art Matriarchs Exhibition,^[20] El Segundo, CA
• November, 2018 - December, 2018: Anne Kittrell Art Gallery,^[21] Project 562, Campus Collection Series, Fayetteville, AR

• Official website
• Matika Wilbur: "Changing the Way We See Native Americans", TEDx Talk
• "What Native Americans really look like, CNN article about Matika Wilbur
• Appearances on C-SPAN