Matika Wilbur

About Matika Wilbur

Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) is one of the nation’s leading photographers, based in the Pacific Northwest. Wilbur has curated striking photographs for her Seeds of Culture exhibit from among thousands of portraits she has taken in recent years. The photographs are accompanied by written narratives and audio of the interviews she conducts as part of her project. Elders, activists, educators, culture-bearers, artists, and students have shared with Wilbur their realities as Native women. They convey how ancestral and contemporary identities shape their lives and hopes in Indian Country.

Wilbur earned her BFA from Brooks Institute of Photography where she double majored in Advertising and Digital Imaging. Her most recent endeavor, Project 562, has brought Matika to over 400 tribal nations dispersed throughout 45 U.S. states where she has taken thousands of portraits, and collected hundreds of contemporary narratives from the breadth of Indian Country all in the pursuit of one goal: To Change The Way We See Native America. As a former educator, she realized that the representation of Native peoples in media and in learning materials as a “leathered and feathered” dying peoples deeply affected the identity and perceived potential of her students. Thus began Project 562, the mission of which is to photograph and collect stories of Native Americans from each federally-recognized tribe in the United States. Through her lens, we are able to see the vibrancy and diversity of Indian Country and in seeing we challenge stereotypical representations and begin shifting consciousness about contemporary Native America.