Project 562

The photography project entitled Project 562 was started by a young woman named Matika Wilbur in 2012. Wilbur bought an RV after selling everything in her apartment and travels the country visiting different groups of Native Americans. In her own words, her mission with the project is "to unveil the true essence of contemporary Native issues, the beauty of Native culture, the magnitude of tradition, an expose her vitality" (Matika Wilbur). The basic structure of the projects are the portraits taken of Native Americans. Accompanying the photos on the Project 562 website are stories and quotes from the people in them. This allows Matika to achieve her goal of "unveiling the true essence" of the Native Americans.

Photograph of Tatanka Means by Matika Wilbur

Along with the portraits of Native Americans featured on the Project 562 website are portraits in a blog post entitled "5 Positive Representations of Native Americans". This blog post by Wilbur consists of more portraits with people's stories, but these stories counteract the stereotypes that are given to modern day Native Americans. One of the pictures of a man named Tatanka Means has a quote under it where Means talks about how he doesn't drink or do drugs. This is against the modern stereotype that Native Americans are drunks and stoners. This blog post is only one of many that Matika Wilbur has created for Project 562.

Other blog posts that exist on the Project 562 website are informative for events going on in the Native American community that "outsiders" might not know much about. One blog post was entitled "Still Native Land: Understanding the Movement at Standing Rock". Throughout this blog post, Matika describes the event in ways that are more easily understandable for someone who is not part of the Native American community. These blog posts exist to further help Matika Wilbur achieve her goal for the project.

Matika Wilbur with her RV "Big Girl" and her Camera