PROJECT 562 Book Launch

1521 10th Avenue,Seattle WA 98122

27 April, 2023

Description

Swinomish and Tulalip photographer Matika Wilbur launches her long-awaited book, Project 562: Changing the Way we See Native America, a photographic and narrative celebration of contemporary Native American life and cultures from her ten years on the road photographing more than 500 Tribes in what is now known as The United States. This special evening will include traditional Coast Salish singers and dancers, a special presentation by Matika followed by a book signing, and NW Coastal cuisine. It will be a night to remember! This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are not required but are strongly encouraged. Visit our website to pre-order the book. You can choose to have it shipped to your home address or pick it up in the store. ABOUT THE BOOKIn 2012, Matika Wilbur sold everything in her Seattle apartment and set out on a Kickstarter-funded pursuit to visit, engage, and photograph people from what were then the 562 federally recognized Native American Tribal Nations. Over the next decade, she traveled six hundred thousand miles across fifty states—from Seminole country (now known as the Everglades) to Inuit territory (now known as the Bering Sea)—to meet, interview, and photograph hundreds of Indigenous people. The body of work Wilbur created serves to counteract the one-dimensional and archaic stereotypes of Native people in mainstream media and offers justice to the richness, diversity, and lived experiences of Indian Country. The culmination of this decade-long art and storytelling endeavor, Project 562 is a peerless, sweeping, and moving love letter to Indigenous Americans, containing hundreds of stunning portraits and compelling personal narratives of contemporary Native people—all photographed in clothing, poses, and locations of their choosing. Their narratives touch on personal and cultural identity as well as issues of media representation, sovereignty, faith, family, the protection of sacred sites, subsistence living, traditional knowledge-keeping, land stewardship, language preservation, advocacy, education, the arts, and more. ABOUT THE AUTHORMatika Wilbur is a critically acclaimed social documentarian and photographer from the Swinomish and Tulalip peoples of coastal Washington. Project 562, a crowd-funded initiative to visit, engage, and photograph people from over 562 sovereign Tribal Nations in North America, is her fourth major creative venture elevating Native American identity and culture. She co-hosts the All My Relations podcast with Dr. Adrienne Keene as a platform that invites guests to delve into subjects facing Native peoples today and explore the connections between land, non-human relatives, and one another. She has offered over 300 keynotes at such places as Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Google, TED Talks, the National Education Association, and National Geographic Explorer, and is a regular contributor to the New York Times.