Hilary Giovale is a mother, writer, and community organizer who holds a Master’s Degree in Good and Sustainable Communities.  She has taught improvisational dance and has served on the boards of philanthropic, human rights, and environmental organizations.  Descended from the Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of Ancient Europe, she is a ninth-generation American settler.  For most of her life these origins were obscured by whiteness. 

After learning more about her ancestors’ history, Hilary began emerging from a fog of amnesia, denial, and fragmentation.  For the first time, she could see a painful reality: her family’s occupation of this land has harmed Indigenous and African peoples, cultures, lands, and lifeways.  With this realization, her life changed.

The inquiry ‘How can I become a good relative?’ guides Hilary’s work, including her writing, teaching, and reparative philanthropy.  Divesting from settler colonialism and whiteness, she seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of healing, mutual liberation, and equitable futures. Hilary is the author of Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair (published by Green Writers Press, October 2024).