Surviving Disappearance, Re-Imagining & Humanizing Native Peoples: Matika Wilbur

Matika Wilbur, one of the Pacific Northwest's leading photographers, has exhibited extensively in regional, national, and international venues such as the Seattle Art Museum, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, The Tacoma Art Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Nantes Museum of Fine Arts in France. She studied photography at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Montana and received a bachelor's degree from Brooks Institute of Photography in California.

Her Project 562 is a multi-year national photography project dedicated to photographing over 562 federally recognized tribes in The United States.

Her work led her to becoming a certified teacher at Tulalip Heritage High School, providing inspiration for the youth of her own indigenous community. Matika, a Native American woman of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes (Washington), is unique as an artist and social documentarian in Indian Country. The insight, depth, and passion with which she explores the contemporary Native identity and experience are communicated through the impeccable artistry of each of her silver gelating photographs.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

Earth and Spirit Council, July 14, 2011

Ilarion Merculieff speaks on indigenous elder wisdom and the highly evolved spiritual culture of Mother Earth based cultures. He talks about the womb at the Center of the Universe and why woman are sacred.

In 2004, the Gabriel Dumont Institute brought together Metis Elders from across Saskatchewan to hear their stories and learn about their past. Maria Campbell interviewed Jeanne Pelletier and Clementine Longworth. They share stories about educational experiences, transportation, the Michif language, living on the Road Allowance, employment, hunting, fishing, food, celebrations such as Christmas and New Year's, dancing, fiddling, clothing, medicine, midwifery, the 1885 Resistance, Louis Riel, jigging, square dancing, and more! Visit here at Metis Museum for more resources on Métis history and culture!

The passing on of indigenous knowledge and culture to a young girl by her mother. 

On Laudato Si' & the Imminent Problem of Care for Creation

On Care for Our Common Home

Interview with Father John Rausch of the Glenmary Home Missioners who speaks about Pope Francis' Papal Encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (2015), and the imminent problem humanity faces with "care of creation." Father John explains its not an economic or ecological problem — its a spiritual one, with great consequences for the world's poor — and more so, for all of us. We are all connected, and only through good relations and a value system that builds community and the global commons can we save the Earth.

Climate change is real, and each one of us has a stake in our common future, and so we need to engage in dialogue, and more so, change our lifestyles. Father John is a Catholic Priest and environmental steward of the US Southern Appalacia Mountain region. He has worked actively to raise awareness and to stop the dangerous practice of mountain top mining that is destroying biodiversity and communities throughout the Southeastern states of the US.

'Active Hope," is the title of a new book by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. In it, they eschew feel good denial, cynical disengagement and baseless optimism. In this talk, Macy summarized their message. As Macy and Johnstone wisely acknowledge, there are no comforting certainties involved in opting to work for change with ‘active hope:’ “…there are no guarantees that we’ll be able to turn things far or fast enough to safeguard our civilization, or indeed, to ensure the continued existence of conscious life on Earth. We will probably not know in our lifetimes whether we are serving as deathbed attendants to a dying world or as midwives to the next stage of human evolution.” But, act we must on the issues we care about. Taking their lead from Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone's new book Active Hope, Cynthia Papermaster and Harvey Wasserman organized this evening of multi-issue presentations, Januare 10, 2016 at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists.

Please click on the image to order the book from Amazon or visit your local bookstore. Thank you.