Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers Toward Truth, Healing, and Repair - Paperback

by Hilary Giovale (Author)

Becoming a Good Relative weaves the author's personal story of transformation with historical research, spiritual teachings, and an appendix of practical skills, resources, and rituals. Giovale offers warm, compassionate, and vulnerable personal stories to reveal how unlearning fragility, becoming antiracist, and repairing ancestral harm can feel. She invites readers beyond intellectual analysis into intuition, dreams, and practical rituals. These practices can transform the harms of colonialism, racial hierarchy, and economic inequity from the inside out. While written as a memoir, this book gives readers practical tools for building their own resilience and committing to reparations for the long term.

This book is for white people who are curious about moving beyond white fragility and into robust healing. It speaks to the TikTok users who have viewed videos on #decolonization 14 million times. It also addresses the philanthropic sector, which has increased its overall giving by 41% since 2019, along with regular Americans' substantial donations, and is seeking inspiration to direct more funding to communities of Color.

Author Biography

Hilary Giovale is a writer, community organizer, speaker and reparative philanthropist, and has served on boards for philanthropic, human rights, and environmental organizations. For most of her life, her origins were obscured by the delusion of whiteness until she learned a painful reality: her family's occupation of this land harmed Indigenous and African peoples and cultures. Divesting from whiteness, she bridges divides with truth, healing, apology, and forgiveness. She follows Indigenous and Black leadership supporting human rights, environmental justice, and equitable futures.