[4][5] Wilkinson has been a practising jeweller for over 20 years and her work explores customary Māori adornment while pushing the boundaries of contemporary New Zealand jewellery practices.
[7] "Her work emerges from the encounter of two things: contemporary jewelry, which she would define as a critical studio craft practice which makes objects that are grounded in an awareness of the body; and Maori systems of knowledge, which place people in specific relationships to each other and to the world and which sometimes use objects to mediate these connections.
"[8] During the 1990s, she found support for her practice through the Fingers Collective, a contemporary New Zealand jewellery store and exhibition space, and through cofounding a shared studio Workshop6.
[10][11][12] In 2010, Wilkinson was artist in resident at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, where her research centred on wearable taonga (treasures) held in the museum's collection.
[13] On 28 February 2016, Wilkinson gave a lecture with Alan Preston at the Pinakothek die Moderne in Munich Germany.