Learning about the Commonwealth Assets and the breakdown of the specific assets allowed me to take a step back and see my community from a new lens. It also allowed me to see just how interconnected the components found within the assets allow a community to function in its own unique way. Learning about each asset highlighted the specific strengths that my community has in a new light. In my community the the strongest and most striking examples of Commonwealth are Arts, Culture and Health.
I chose Arts and Culture as a Commonwealth Asset because I see it everyday in many different forms and settings. The example that I want to talk about for this blog are the Native American powwows that take place every weekend on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. These powwows are grounded in Lakota culture through our language, traditional songs and dances, and worldview. For example the most recent powwow I attended was my tribe’s annual 4th of July powwow earlier this month. Here I heard Lakota contemporary and traditional songs being sung, the Lakota language being spoken, and witnessed the broad array of different dancers of all ages come together.
The second most striking Commonwealth Asset I saw was Health, in the sense that the community is striving towards better health on all levels physical, mental, and spiritual. Along with these weekly powwows, my tribes Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) hosts a Walk/Run where families and community members from all walks of life at all health levels come together with the common goal of having better health through physical activity. My family has been attending these walks for over 5 years now, and it has been encouraging to see the crowds get bigger every year with more people.
