Matika Wilbur launches 'Project 562' book at Swinomish last Tuesday

Photographer and writer Matika Wilbur, "Tsa-Tsique," introduced her epic photography book "Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America" to the world before a full room of over 160 people in the Social Services Building on the Swinomish Reservation last Tuesday night, April 25. Emcee for the evening Michael. Vendiola, education director for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, was absolutely right in exclaiming, "I am really excited to have her here. She could have done this anywhere, in New York." But Wilbur, a member of the Swinomish and Tulalip tribes, had come home to celebrate with her family, friends and community.

Before her near-hour long presentation, summarizing her 10 year journey of traveling the United States – Indian Country – to photograph members of well over 500 tribes, there was ceremonial singing and dancing, with the Swinomish Canoe Family entering the hall, perhaps 40 members, from elders to babes in arms.

Wilbur was really excited, too, and obviously happy to be home. She recognized and thanked her grandmother and her family members and raised her hands to each and every person in the room. "My heart is so full," she said, and her presentation showed her love and concern for the people she had met and the experiences she had in her years of journeying and the dream realized that became "Project 562."

Wilbur shared a bit of her experience in the slides recounting her travels and visits and search. "'Project 562' took me to visit over 500 tribes on what we now call the United States of America," she said. It was obvious that love sustained her. "I love my people. I love my family," she said. Her photos prove that. She shared brief stories of a few of the people she met in states from coast to coast, from California to the Atlantic and south to north, through the southwest and the great plains and the Great Lakes. She named famous places like Standing Rock, in the Dakotas, and famous groups, like the 1491s, a sketch comedy group of five men.

Traveling in a van for that long brings difficulty and hardship, vehicle accidents and great road shots. Wilbur and her van are photographed overlooking an ocean. "Traveling in the van was the adventure of my life," she said.

Meeting others and being on the road was an inward journey, also. There was time to think and reflect, alone and with others. Thinking about and naming truths might be an everyday gift. Opportunities abounded to unpack racism, she said, sharing slide after slide of various tribal members. "The more we look like ourselves. That is what they took from us. The way we look at ourselves. It brings us back to who we are. We are never going to assimilate," she said.

Wilbur listened to and recorded and recounted hundreds of stories in a variety of environments, from isolated, remote areas to the big cities, for Native peoples live everywhere.

Some of it was heartbreaking, the reality of living in America. She told the story of Leon Grant who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He had a dream of going to college. Doing so meant walking to Phoenix, Arizona. He arrived with $19. He told that to the right college administrator. Grant told Wilbur he worked his way through school.

Sharing photo after photo, each one a memory and a story, Wilbur said, "The road really taught me everything. I didn't know what I needed to know. The road taught me listening.

She knows enough not to be afraid of love. "Your people have to love themselves," she said. "We deserve to trust our selves with all the love."

Reflecting on a trip to a northern California tribe, Wilbur recalled, "I realized if you give us time we will rise. We will resurrect our dreams and will come together. We will rise. It is one thing to talk about hope, another to [realize or live] hope."

Considering her 10 years on the road she found she was most moved by the people she met. "It was the people, their kindness. I learned about the great big love. It was the great big love that carried me through. Why did they share with me? I realized Indian Country was ready to indigenize."

Speaking to her people, she offered: "If we want to, we have the opportunity to embrace indigenous intelligence. That is what I offer in my book. What does it mean to be a native person? Try to be a human being in our own language."

Her reading advice: "When you read this book take a step back and acknowledge Indigenous people in our life. When you see these photos you are not looking at one person. There are 1,000 people behind them."

She was more than philosophical and reflective. It struck me her time and journey were a pilgrimage. The dictionary defines pilgrimage: "a search, a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion:"

Wilbur will be taking another cross-country trip to launch her book traveling with her family in their RV.

She will be at Seaport Books in La Conner's Gilkey Square July 6. The store is taking book orders.