Free Family Summer Saturdays:
“Bowwow Powwow”

Readers, writers, and animal-lovers, you won’t want to miss this visit from Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe), author of the award-winning children’s book, Bowwow Powwow!

Please note that unless your pup is a service dog, he or she will need to stay home while you come to the event.

Join us for a day of programming focused on literature and our favorite four-legged friends, including the opportunity to participate in readings and signings of the book with Dr. Child, learn about Ojibwe language and traditions, complete dog-centric art activities and see elements of this joyful story come to life, including Fancy Dance with Tony Duncan (San Carlos Apache + MHA). Copies of Bowwow Powwow will be available for purchase in Books & More, where Heard Museum Members always receive a 10% discount.

Interested in becoming an author or illustrator? Make sure to attend the Ask an Author Q&A and It’s Your Turn to be an Illustrator sessions with Dr. Child. And, make your own mini-book, or zine, with Heard Museum Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Se’mana Thompson (Akimel Otham, Gila River Indian Community) and Pauline Alvarez of Indigenous Honeys. 

Read On Arizona, Growing Readers Developing Leaders and the Arizona Department of Education’s Early Childhood Division will be on campus sharing resources with adults about how to support early literacy.

Chomp your canines into treats from the Heard Museum Café and Coffee Cantina and enjoy a day you’ll be barking, howling, and woofing about for the rest of the summer.

All Day: 

• Art activities connecting to Bowwow Powwow  
• Information about the Gila River Tribal Education Department’s Growing Readers Developing Leaders initiative 
• Screenings of Minnesota Historical Society Storytime reading of the Ojibwe version of Bowwow Powwow in Harnett Theater  

Scheduled Programs:  

• 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Zine-making with Heard Museum Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Se’mana Thompson (Akimel Otham, Gila River Indian Community) and Pauline Alvarez of Indigenous Honeys 
• 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Ojibwe language with Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) 
• 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Bowwow Powwow read-aloud with author Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) 

• 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Fancy Dance with Tony Duncan (San Carlos Apache + MHA) in Steele Auditorium 
• 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Presentation for caregivers on early literacy from the Arizona Department of Education’s Early Childhood Division 
• 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Bowwow Powwow book signing and meet-and-greet with author Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) in Books & More  
• 12:00 p.m to 12:30 p.m. Ask An Author Q&A with Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) 
• 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Bowwow Powwow read-aloud with author Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) 

• 1:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Fancy Dance with Tony Duncan (San Carlos Apache + MHA) in Steele Auditorium 
• 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Bowwow Powwow book signing and meet-and-greet with author Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) in Books & More  
• 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. It’s Your Turn to be an Illustrator! with Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) 
• 3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Bowwow Powwow Read-aloud with Heard staff

About Brenda Child:

Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) is Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota. In 2021, she was the University of Minnesota’s recipient of the President’s Community Engaged Scholar Award. She was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow.

Child is the author of several award-winning books including Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (Nebraska, 1998); Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (Penguin, 2012); and My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation (MHS Press, 2014). The latter won the American Indian Book Award. Her new book project is The Marriage Blanket: Love, Violence, and the Law in Indian Country. She has a popular documentary, Jingle Dress Dancers in the Modern World: Ojibwe People and Pandemics (2020). She also authored a bilingual book for children, Bowwow Powwow, which won a major prize, the American Indian Youth Literature Medal.

Child was born on the Red Lake Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota and is part of a committee developing a new constitution for the 15,000- member nation.