Brainerd graduation to include drum ceremony after community pushback

BRAINERD — An Indigenous student drum group will perform an approximately three-minute honor song during Brainerd High School’s commencement ceremony after community members pushed the district to approve it.

Years of effort have gone into establishing a drum group in the district.

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Govinda Budrow | Brainerd Public Schools AIPAC

Chair of the volunteer American Indian Parent Advisory Committee Govinda Budrow said there was a plan approved for the drum group’s inclusion at graduation.

“In April 2025, [Brainerd High School] administration, in collaboration with Indigenous Education staff and AIPAC, approved the involvement of our drum group for the 2026 graduation ceremony,” reads an email from AIPAC chair Govinda Budreau to district leadership, posted on the AIPAC’s Facebook page.

“Our Indigenous Education Coordinator informed ... you of this approval during your March 6 meeting, at which time the response given was that this plan was previously unknown to current administration.”

A few days before graduation on Friday, May 29, the Committee was made aware that the drum group was not going to be included in the program.

In emails to Budrow on Wednesday, interim Superintendent Peter Grant said he was not aware of any past plans.

“With limited time to address this with staff and administration, I told [Indigenous Education Coordinator] Shayla [Makowski-Budrow] it would be a worthy discussion early next year,” Grant wrote in the email.

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Govinda Budreau | Brainerd Public Schools AIPAC

But after an outpouring of community support for the drumming, the song was approved Thursday morning, the day before graduation.

Budrow, who is a White Earth Nation descendant, said she is relieved the drum group will finally get its chance to perform at graduation. But she also said she was frustrated it took so much effort to be heard on behalf of these students.

“I do think that this is not a decision that would have been made ... had there not been community leaning in with urgency around this,” Budrow said in a Thursday, May 28, phone interview.

In any district that has 10 or more Native American students, schools must form American Indian Parent Advisory Committees. In the last eight years, Brainerd’s AIPAC has given the district votes of nonconcurrence, meaning the district is not meeting the requirements of Native students.

“As long as we have opportunity gaps, achievement gaps, we have struggles around whether or not our whole sensory experience — like our sights, our sounds, our smells showing up in those buildings — have to be fought for, it is difficult to say that they're meeting the needs of our Native students,” Budrow said.

Native students represent a little more than 3% of Brainerd High School’s student body, and the AIPAC has been working toward a student drum group for five years.

“They had lessons, and they started to do events just with their hand drums. They built the drum. They have had mentorship, they've had teachings around it, they've feasted it,” Budrow said. “They've been preparing for this moment.”

A request for comment from Grant was not returned as of Thursday afternoon.

"The change in this decision would not have occurred without each of you standing, voicing, and supporting!" Budrow wrote on Facebook.

"Tomorrow evening we look forward to honoring the graduates with the drum! Please support the boys that have worked hard for this moment to be a reality."