“Before this circle, I thought of myself as detached from my family — as an island floating out on my own in the world. Through this class, I began to see how false this is. Turning my heart towards the lines of people that brought me here has helped me find more belonging and connection in my life. ”
REKINDLING ANCESTRAL MEMORY CIRCLE 2023-2024
Co-facilitated by Hilary Giovale and Elyshia Holliday
About the Circle
This is a 7-month circle for European-descended settlers in North America. We will engage with our European ancestors toward rekindling ancestral memory, mutual healing, reparations, and forgiveness. This circle will be a respectful, curious, and nurturing space for community dialogue. Participants will ritually build and tend ancestor altars, discover more about our family stories, and translate these experiences into real-world action.
Why is this circle focused on European ancestry, and how is the circle related to Nature?
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
Settler colonialism and whiteness
Rekindling our ancestral 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 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: October 25th, November 15th, December 13th, January 3rd, January 31st, February 28th, March 20th, April 10th, and May 1st.
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 circles will not be made.
Additional office hours with the co-facilitators will be offered on other dates, as well as guest speaker dates- these dates and times will vary.
Please plan to join us live as often as you are able. There will also be a private thread for our group on ONE’s community platform, Mighty Networks.
Reparations
If you join the circle, we suggest a sliding scale contribution of $150-$1200 (or more) for the entire eight-month session. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. 100% of the contributions will be returned to the following organizations, using a reparations framework, and to our guest speakers as honoraria.
The Omni Institute of Black Joy Research is an organization founded by Dr. Chris Omni to explore nature’s influence on the physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being of Black people.
Located in the ancestral Tewa homelands of Northern New Mexico, Tewa Women United is a multicultural and multiracial organization founded and led by Native women. The name “Tewa Women United” comes from the Tewa words wi don gi mu which can be translated as “we are one” in mind, heart, and in the spirit of love for all. Tewa Women United envisions movement(s) rooted in P’in Haa (Breath of Heart/Life) and P’in Nall (Touching Heart and Spirit) that nurture and celebrate the collective power of beloved families, communities, and Nung Ochuu Quiyo (Earth Mother). Through Relational-tivity, we embody courageous spaces that center Indigenous women and girls to connect with ancestral knowingness, healing strengths, and lifeways for the wellbeing of ALL.
Request to Join the Circle
This class is open to members and affiliates of ONE and will be limited to 16 participants.
We ask that you tell us about yourself and why you are drawn to the circle at this time using the “Circle Request” button below. This will help us know you a little better. We will send you the registration link after we receive your circle request.
If you are not already a member of ONE you can sign up here.
This year’s circle is full. You can still fill out the circle request and we will add you to our waitlist in case space opens up. Thank you for your interest.
Meet your Facilitators
Hilary Giovale is a ninth-generation American settler descended from the ancient Celtic, Germanic, and Nordic peoples of northwestern 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 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 inquiry including ancestral repair, solidarity with Indigenous-led movements, reconnection with Earth, apology, forgiveness, and reparations. She is the author of a forthcoming book (now available for pre-order) 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. Elyshia is a fourteenth-generation American settler descending from the Celtic and Nordic peoples of northwestern Europe.
Elders Circle
We are grateful for these Elders, whose expertise has informed our process. They are generously offering support and guidance for our circle this year.
Basil Brave Heart is an Oglala Lakota Elder who lives in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He is a Catholic boarding school survivor, retired school administrator, addiction counselor, and Korean War combat veteran who served as a paratrooper in the 1950s. As a young child in the 1930s, Basil’s Grandma Lucy told him about the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, in which hundreds of Lakota women, children, and grandparents were killed. She counseled him to forgive the soldiers who perpetrated the massacre. A dream of his grandma later guided Basil to change the name of a peak in the Black Hills. In 2016, it was renamed “Black Elk Peak” at the federal level. Basil studies how quantum physics corroborates the wisdom woven throughout the Lakota language and other Indigenous languages. Over the last decade, he has been facilitating truth, healing, and forgiveness across historical divides.
Ilarion (Larry) ‘Kuuyux’ Merculieff has decades of experience serving his people, the Unangan (Aleuts) of the Pribilof Islands, and other indigenous peoples in a number of capacities—locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally. Close to Ilarion’s heart are issues related to cultural and community wellness, traditional ways of living, Elder wisdom, climate change and the environment. Having had a traditional upbringing, Merculieff has been, and continues to be, a strong voice and activist calling for the meaningful application of traditional knowledge and wisdom obtained from Elders in Alaska and throughout the world in dealing with modern-day challenges. He founded and currently heads the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways, and is a chief consultant and member in several other board councils. His present work revolves much around the council of Elders he co-founded, called the Wisdom Weavers of the World, to bring the messages of Elders from throughout the world to global attention.
Guest Speakers
Patty Krawec (Anishinaabe/Ukranian), through writing and speaking, explores how we might live differently in the relationships we inherit. She is a co-founder of the Nii’kinaaganaa Foundation and the author of Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future published by Broadleaf Books. Her work centers on Indigenous identity and thought and has also been published in Sojourners, Rampant Magazine, Midnight Sun, Yellowhead Institute, Indiginews, Religion News Service, and Broadview. She posts podcasts and essays with some regularity on multiple substacks. You can find her online at daanis.ca
Dr. Chris Omni is a keynote speaker, panel moderator, award-winning entrepreneur, and Black Joy scholar, artist, and activist. She is the go-to source for creative and compassionate conversations that lead to community change. Dr. Omni’s research explores nature’s influence on the physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being of Black people. By blending her 25-year background in public health with her foreground in art education, Dr. Omni’s presentations provide a counter-narrative to the typical deficit lens generally applied to the Black experience.
Testimonials from Past Participants
“My experience with the Rekindling Ancestral Memory Circle was profound and life-changing. I loved that we were encouraged to build a relationship with our ancestral lineages through both traceable research as well as through listening to our dreams and intuitive knowing. I also appreciated the integrity of how the group was facilitated, supporting me in taking an honest look at the colonial chapters of my ancestral history. Rather than approaching this history with judgment or shame, I was supported in approaching with an intention of reckoning and healing. This process was deeply impactful. I now feel more connected to my ancestral lineages and I also feel I have tools to continue on the journey of learning and reckoning with the past — both the beauty and the suffering.”
“I loved how we explored our connection with ancestors in a non-linear, intuitive way, and also a practical, truth-seeking way. I wanted and needed both. Similarly, I loved how Elyshia and Hilary balanced the ritual/prayer aspects of our circle with the reparations/actions pieces. I've not been in a group that had both sides. This has been such a breath of fresh air.”
“I'm in awe of the journey Hilary and Elyshia guided us on. I have a new relationship with my ancestors and they are living through me. I've experienced healing and movement toward wholeness. Highly recommend this offering.”
"Being held, supported, and encouraged by this circle allowed me to feel ready to begin looking into the shadows of my family ancestry... which I've been trying to do alone for years, unsuccessfully. I needed a bigger holding to be able to begin facing the horrific truths of my family line."
"This circle helped me to discover the threads of ancestry that I carry within my body and spirit and how these threads are woven throughout time and space, connecting me to the entire tapestry of life. By the end of the circle, I felt more whole in knowing who I am and more agency in understanding my own part in the healing of our world."
“The Circle has been a beautiful, warm, welcoming container for learning and sharing. The practices, conversations, and speakers all generated potent heart-centered connection and action. Hilary and Elyshia guide the group with authenticity and a skillful mix of clear communication, joy, and their own lived experience in this lifelong work. So grateful for this grounding foundation for my ongoing ancestral healing and reparations commitments.”
"This group helped reignite and re-invigorate my ongoing commitment to living a life focused on actively undoing and healing the places racism and colonization live in my white body, and in the systems that run our country."
"Through digging back far enough and feeling into how my ancestors were also once deeply connected to the Earth, I've been able to soften some of the shame I've been carrying. The less shame takes up space inside me, the more room I have to be present and awake with energy to take action and make reparations in the now. I feel this shift on a visceral level."
"My awareness has expanded to see how much we all carry around with us from our family history. I am heartened to know that there are tangible avenues I can take toward healing the wounds that my ancestors inflicted and endured. I feel more connected to this path in myself and am excited to continue to let this path unfold, to listen to what needs attention and healing in my lineage."
“The care, depth and wisdom of Hilary and Elyshia wove a subtle but profound web throughout our circle that held each of us as we explored and discovered our histories and mysteries. “
Good Questions
Why is this Circle Focused on European Ancestry?
ONE's extended family has been a majority white community, and we long for the vibrant diversity of a healthy human ecosystem. At the same time, in order to avoid repeating the harms of our ancestors, European descended people must come together and explore our family stories honestly. We have an opportunity to open our minds and our hearts to meet the complex people from whom we descend. We do this with empathy for their lives and circumstances and with the courage to transform their legacies.
In this circle, we will explore our ancestors' stories as settlers on Indigenous land. In our experience - as well as in the collective experience - it has been helpful to begin this process within Euro-centered community spaces. This helps to eliminate projecting our ancestral traumas onto marginalized peoples. Together, we will practice becoming good relatives to diverse communities over time.
This circle is not an exclusively white space. People of partial European ancestry who are interested in exploring their settler legacies are welcome and encouraged to join us.
What Does the Circle Have to Do with Nature?
Somewhere in each of our ancestral lineages, we all descend from Earth-honoring people- those who were intricately woven into the web of life. Over time, many of our ancestors forgot this innate knowing, due to trauma, migration, war, and famine. Our legacies became empty. In this process of forgetting, we began to see Earth and all her beings as only resources. This is part of colonization. The modern environmental movement emerged from this history. It has used archaic patterns to “protect the natural world,” rather than working with nature as a loving partner.
In this circle, as we reconnect with our ancestors, we also begin to awaken the innate Earth-honoring knowledge that lives in each of us. As we heal our pasts, we become better relatives for our human and non-human family.
As Aurora Levins Morales writes, ”The problems in our relationships with each other and with the so-called natural world are the same. If we understand ourselves as part of a living ecosystem continually being shaped by and shaping us, then everything we do has ecological implications, and every attempt to mend or protect our ecosystem is inevitably rooted in questions of social justice. For human society to be sustainable on earth, it must become inclusive, must take into account the well-being of each one of us." (From the essay "Ecology is Everything," in her book Medicine Stories: Essays for Radicals)
