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 Wilbur
Tsa-Tsiq
Born (1984-04-28) April 28, 1984
NationalityTulalip Tribes of Washington,[1] American
Alma materBrooks Institute
Known forProject 562
Styleportrait photography
MovementNative photography
Websitematikawilbur.com

Early life and education

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.

Career

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.

Photography

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
Main article: Project 562

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. 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]

Podcast

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]

Selected exhibitions
  • 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

References
  1. "Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip)". Photoville. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  2. Block, Melissa (April 28, 2023). "Photographer's decade-long, 600,000-mile journey shows Indigenous life in new book". The Picture Show. NPR. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  3. Glazier, Garen (31 May 2016). "Matika Wilbur". NSL: North Sound Life. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  4. "Matika Wilbur Photography". www.matikawilbur.com. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  5. Walker, Richard (2013-01-15). "Photographer Matika Wilbur's Three-Year, 562-Tribe Adventure". Indian Country Today Media Network.
  6. "Blog - Project 562- A Photo Project by Matika Wilbur documenting Native America". www.matikawilbur.com. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  7. "Matika Wilbur". tacoma.emuseum.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  8. Wilbur, Matika. "Portfolio".
  9. "How Matika Wilbur Shows Native Americans Through a Different Lens". Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  10. Richardson, Whitney (19 February 2014). "Rejecting Stereotypes, Photographing 'Real' Indians". Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  11. Isler, Hilal (2015-09-07). "One woman's mission to photograph every Native American tribe in the US". the Guardian. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  12. Raymond, Claire (2017-04-21). Women Photographers and Feminist Aesthetics. doi:10.4324/9781315628912. ISBN 9781315628912.
  13. Egan, Timothy (2013). Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher. Boston: Mariner Books. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-618-96902-9.
  14. "All My Relations | HOME". All My Relations. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  15. "Photographic Presence and Contemporary Indians: Matika Wilbur's Project 562". Tacoma Art Museum. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  16. "Tom Jones". Art Department Faculty Quadrennial Exhibition. Chazen Museum of Art. p. 34. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  17. "As We See It: Contemporary Native American Photographers". 516 ARTS. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  18. "Seeds of Culture: The Portraits and Stories of Native American Women". Racliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard University. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  19. "WhatCom Museum".
  20. "El Segundo Museum of Art".
  21. "Anne Kittrell Art Gallery".
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