Most WPF .Net 100.X samples use a Static Resource of the Map object declared in the xaml file. Then the Map property of the MapView control is set to Static Resource instance. I would like to do the same for Graphics overlays but this does not seem to be possible. The exposed Overlays property is for an unrelated Items control. Sure, I can use the somewhat confusing approach as is demonstrated in the "Controller" samples (demonstrates injecting a "weak" reference to the MapView into the view model to control, for example, the map viewpoint from the ViewModel), but is there no more straight forward way?
The approach I'd suggest is you create a view model that contains both a Map and a GraphicsOverlayCollection, then set the datacontext to that viewmodel. Then you'll merely bind the two to the mapview:
<esri:MapView Map="{Binding Map}" GraphicsOverlays="{Binding Overlays}" />
Ah, of course. I was thrown off by the Overlays property and did not notice GraphicsOverlays.
Thank you for steering me in the right direction.