REKINDLING ANCESTRAL MEMORY CIRCLE 2021-22
Co-facilitated by Elyshia Holiday and Hilary Giovale
Registration for this year’s circle has closed.
About the Circle
This is an 8-month circle for descendants of North American settlers on these lands to engage with our European ancestors toward rekindling ancestral memory, decolonization, forgiveness, reparations, and mutual healing for the benefit of all. This circle will be a respectful, curious, and nurturing space for community dialogue as participants experience the ritual of building an ancestral altar and tending the altar over time.
Each circle will be intuitively guided and will focus on topics such as:
Community-based ancestral storytelling
Embracing earth-honoring, nonlinear, and intuitive ways of knowing
The legacies of settler colonialism
Rekindling our ancestral blood memory
Building right relations
Making reparations
Activities we will engage in:
Finding and sharing our ancestral stories with each other
Respectfully connecting with the land where we live
Keeping an ancestor altar and dream journal
Listening to Indigenous guest speakers
Writing an ancestral apology or forgiveness prayer
Healing rituals
Each month, catalyzing resources and activities will be provided based upon our circle discussions. For a comprehensive list of resources, please visit Hilary's website.
Circle Dates and Times:
We will gather via Zoom on the following Wednesdays (eleven in total): October 27th, November 3rd and 17th, December 8th, January 5th, February 2nd, March 2nd and 23rd, April 13th and 27th, and May 4th. Additional office hours with the co-facilitators will be offered on several other dates.
Our group will meet at 5-6:30 Pacific on each of these dates. Each circle will be held live using the Zoom platform. The experience of this circle is focused on in-person interactions within a respectful, conscious container. Recordings of the classes will not be made.
Please plan to join us in person as often as you are able. There will also be a private thread for our group on ONE’s new community platform. We will email participants links to the zoom meeting space and the group thread the week of October 18th.
Reparations and Registration
This class is open to members and affiliates of ONE and will be limited to 16 participants. We suggest a sliding scale donation of $90-$450 (or more) for the entire eight-month session. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. 100% of the donations will be returned to the following organizations, using a reparations framework:
Apache Stronghold - a San Carlos, AZ-based nonprofit community organization working in spiritual unity to battle continued colonization, defending Holy sites and freedom of religion. They connect Apaches and other Native and non-Native allies from all over the world. Apache Stronghold protects Chi'Chil Biłagoteel (also known as Oak Flat), a sacred site where they pray, collect water and medicinal plants for ceremonies, gather acorns and other foods, and honor those who are buried there.
Homeland Heart - a Nashville, TN-based nonprofit mitigating a heartbreaking reality: Black mothers are 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, and Black infants are twice as likely to die before their first birthdays than white women and infants, respectively. Homeland Heart exists to change the narrative, using community health workers as activists. With the support of women of Color midwives and doulas, they offer programming and services designed for women of Color.
This circle is open to all Members and Affiliates of ONE. If you are already a member then you have received an email with a registration link from us. If you need assistance please email us at info@natureevolutionaries.com.
If you are not yet a member and would like to be please use this link to become a member and there is a registration link for this program in your welcome letter.
Registration for this year’s circle has closed.
Meet your Facilitators
Hilary Giovale is a ninth-generation American settler descended from the ancient Celtic, Germanic, and Nordic peoples of Northwest Europe. She lives at the foot of a sacred mountain, a being of kinship, that stands within the traditional homelands of Diné, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai, Yavapai, and Paiute Peoples, as well as several Pueblos. Her relationships with this land and with Indigenous peoples inform her life as a mother, dancer, community organizer, writer, and philanthropist. In 2015, Hilary became aware of her ancestors’ longstanding presence as American settlers. Since then, she has been living a process of decolonization including ancestral repair, solidarity with Indigenous-led movements, reconnection with Earth, apology, forgiveness, and restoration. She is the author of a forthcoming book that shares about this healing process. To read more about her work, please visit www.goodrelative.com.
Elyshia Holliday is the executive director of ONE and is also the co-founder of Arawaka, an organization dedicated to healing the relationship between human beings and Mother Earth. During these last 20 years and in support of this work she has had the privilege of knowing many indigenous elders and has benefited immensely from their guidance and innate perspective of living as part of a whole earth system. Their wisdom and knowledge profoundly influenced the way Elyshia views life, healing, and our basic guardianship of earth. Much of Elyshia's work has centered around community group facilitation, commitment to healing past wounds across generations and lineages, and helping people deepen their relationship with Mother Earth.