An Invitation to Build the Future
The invitation extended to the Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) to participate in the renovation of the Great Plains Action Society’s (GPAS) Healing Justice Center represents a pivotal moment in contemporary Quaker witness.
This invitation is an opportunity to take part in meaningful and practical work toward decolonial repair. Right now in Iowa City, the Great Plains Action Society (GPAS) is beginning a project that’s more than just a vision—it’s a real, on-the-ground effort to shape what a more just future looks like for Indigenous communities. GPAS is building the actual infrastructure to make it happen and inviting partners to join in.
This map is my vision for Quaker meetings of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) to support the Healing Justice House. Scattergood Friends School is offering lodging for those who will be helping with this renovation, which is from November 30th to December 6th
This project is the 1.2-acre Urban Resilience and Innovation Hub, an endeavor that is far more than an assembly of sustainably retrofitted buildings and innovative programs. It is, in the words of its creators, a “true testament to Indigenous Futurism where our worldviews and lifeways can help reimagine the world”. This vision represents a deliberate and powerful shift in methodology. For generations, Indigenous resistance has necessarily been a “posture of reactive protest”. This work, while essential, is also acknowledged by GPAS leadership as being inherently “traumatic”. The Hub represents a courageous and healing evolution: a move from this state of constant resistance toward the proactive, joyful, and sovereign act of creation. GPAS, an organization forged in the crucible of the NoDAPL resistance at Standing Rock and in Iowa, is now leading the way “from protest to prototype”. They are building a working model of a decolonized, resilient, and sustainable world.
This is the link to an article with more information about this project. https://decolonialrepairnetwork.blog/2025/11/19/healing-justice-house-workcamp-opportunity/
I wanted to show this diagram to those who haven’t been engaged with this work, yet, to give an overview of how these pieces have been coming together over the past eight years.
Storybook: The House with a Heartbeat
A story about renovating Great Plains Action Society’s Healing Justice House in Iowa City.
Decolonial Repair Network 