Indigenous-led Great Plains Action Society plans community hub in Iowa City

IOWA CITY — The Great Plains Action Society, an Indigenous-led nonprofit centered on social and climate justice, is looking to establish a community hub at a group of buildings near the Riverfront Crossings neighborhood in Iowa City.

The nonprofit plans to use the existing buildings — after some renovations — for a variety of community-oriented uses including industrial kitchens, entrepreneurial start ups, meeting rooms, classrooms and offices. There also are plans for an urban garden.

A firm timeline has not been set as to when the community spaces will be open, as the sale of the properties still is being finalized. The real estate deal is contingent on the success of a rezoning request.

The Iowa City Council this week approved the first reading of a rezoning request for the properties, which sit on about one acre of land along Maiden Lane. Two more readings are required before the request can be approved.

“What's important is that it's indigenous led, but it's for everybody. ... We are in a time where we can't continue to live within a colonial capitalist led society, because it's killing us ... . We want this hub to thrive here, because we want to start really teaching not just our own selves, as we bring back our culture and traditions, but everybody certain ways of being ... that’s not just a culture that focuses on money,” Sikowis Nobiss, executive director of Great Plains Action Society, said of the project.

Community-based programming open to all

Beyond being headquarters for the nonprofit, Nobiss said the spaces will be open to other community partners and used for a variety of mutual aid purposes.

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Though the finer details still need to be ironed out, the nonprofit hopes to offer different educational programs centered on ecological knowledge and the larger mission of the nonprofit.

Great Plains Action Society had been contemplating some form of community spaces when Nobiss said she had a dream that led her to looking for properties in the Iowa City area.

“I felt like this was the place that we should be doing this simply because there are few natives here, and I'm tired of feeling like we have to be where natives are to do this work,” Nobiss said. “We really should be going into the spaces where we've been genocided and where we've been colonized and pushed out, and reclaiming these spaces … not just the land where natives are currently residing.”

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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