Professional photographer and speaker Matika Wilbur will speak about “Changing the Way We See Native America” in a talk and free dinner on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. in the EMU’s Redwood Auditorium. Wilbur, from the Swinomish and Tulalip tribes of Washington, comes to the UO discuss the representation of indigenous stereotypes in the media.
Wilbur’s photography has focused on this same topic. Her most recent project, Project 562, has taken her around the country to many of the more than 562 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. to photograph indigenous communities.
“At the core of it all, we all want to remember that we all come from the same place, that we belong to one another,” Wilbur said in a TED Talk she gave in 2013.
Wilbur has visited about 400 of the nation’s 567 tribes since she began the project in 2012, she wrote in a post on her blog. The goal of the project, she says, is to create an “unprecedented repository of imagery and oral histories that accurately portrays contemporary Native Americans.”
Tuesday’s lecture comes as part of the university’s BE Series, which brings guests from underserved communities to campus to help students explore their diverse identities, according to the series’ website.
The talk is also sponsored by the School of Journalism and Communication’s Demystifying Media series, which hosts speakers focused on navigating the changing media environment, according to the program’s website.
Throughout the month of November, the university’s Native American Studies department and Native American Student Union are hosting a number of events, including Wilbur’s talk, to celebrate Native American Heritage Month.
Other events in the series include a wellness workshop titled “Thanks But No Thanks-Giving” on Tuesday, Nov. 20 and a film screening and discussion titled “This is a Stereotype” on Friday, Nov. 16. A full list of events is available on the NAS website.