TULALIP — Matika Wilbur is on the road again.
This time the photographer is headed home.
Wilbur, whose “Project 562” mission is to photograph members of the more than 562 tribal nations across the country, is bringing some of her most recent portraits to the Hibulb Cultural Center for an exhibit — “Natural Wanderment: Stewardship. Sovereignty. Sacredness.” It opens today.
A woman of the Tulalip and Swinomish tribes, Wilbur, 31, has earned the attention of national and international media, exhibited her work regionally and beyond, been awarded numerous grants for her work, done a TED talk, lectured on college campuses and last week was the keynote speaker at the National Indian Education Association conference in Portland.
“I have been traveling a lot, learning a lot and changing. A lot,” Wilbur said. “And there’s no going back.”
With her project, Wilbur set out to meet people and make pictures of American Indians, photos that she hoped would fight stereotypes, build cultural bridges and renew interest in the legacy of this country’s original people.
She did not anticipate that her pictures, interviews and videos that illustrate contemporary native identity would make her a prominent voice in Indian Country.
“I am a storyteller,” she said. “My aim was to bring truth about this continent’s indigenous people. But I did not expect to be a leader.”
Three years ago, Wilbur, a former instructor at Tulalip Heritage High School, sold her belongings and set out across the country in a small recreational vehicle. So far she has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles and photographed people from more than 300 tribes.
Wilbur calls the RV her “war pony” and it’s taken her to some beautiful places, she said.
“When I camp, I sit out under the stars at night and I have this renewed sense of wonderment,” Wilbur said. “Many reservations are near federal lands. It’s amazing — Big Sky, Zion, the Florida Keys, Alaska.”
Throughout the trip, people have asked Wilbur to recount her favorite experiences and talk about the similarities between tribes.
“I say that the issue of our stewardship of our lands and waters is the common thread and the ongoing battle,” she said. “How can we be who we are as indigenous people when the land has been taken away or changed?”
Wilbur says she has realized that land and water rights and access to natural resources “are essential to the exercise of tribal sovereignty and the ability to preserve and promote culture.”
The portraits in the exhibition are of people who seek to protect the sacred and natural world — “one and the same in their view” — but the photos also highlight the diversity of American Indians around the country.
“And I’ve featured the land itself, places of breathtaking beauty and wonder that inspire me to keep going in this long and demanding journey I’m on.”
Wilbur, a graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography in California, said she hopes to wrap up the journey by the end of 2016. The inaugural exhibit of her Project 562 portraits was exhibited last year at the Tacoma Art Museum. Her work also has been exhibited at the Seattle Art Museum, the Burke Museum at the University of Washington, the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria and the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner.
“With Hibulb’s support, I am able to share portraits and narratives of these remarkable people before the end of the project, because it is important that they be seen right now.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
“Natural Wanderment: Stewardship. Sovereignty. Sacredness.” This 42-piece photographic exhibit from Matika Wilbur opens Oct. 23 and runs through June at the Hibulb Cultural Center, 6410 23rd Ave. NE, Tulalip. Call 360-716-2600. To read the Herald’s story from three years ago when Wilbur was just setting out on her Project 562 journey, go to www.heraldnet.com/wilbur.
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