I met Hilary Giovale a few years ago while sitting in the hogan (Navajo dwelling) of my friend and mentor, Steve Darden. He and I were praying together in the tradition of the Diné (Navajo). Giovale was interested in learning about Diné spirituality, and Darden invited her to join us. 

Giovale explained that through the lens of Indigenous cosmology, she was exploring her own history as a White woman with access to historical wealth. My interest was piqued. I wanted to know what she had learned. 

Quite a lot, it turns out. 

For instance, I learned she collaborated with Lakota elder Basil Braveheart to bring together descendants of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre and descendants of the soldiers who perpetuated it. Braveheart taught me forgiveness can change the world. 

When Giovale asked me to review her book, Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers Toward Truth, Healing and Repair I eagerly agreed. I was excited to learn about the Indigenous leaders she spent time with. Here is my review.

Few people can see beyond their own experience and be a bridge between marginalized communities and those in the dominant culture. In Becoming a Good Relative, Giovale does this by seeing through the eyes of the other.

To seek repair, one must identify the interests of the marginalized and share these in ways that those in the dominant culture can hear. Giovale shares her experience of challenging the boundaries of what she had always believed in favor of exploring experiences far beyond her own, including those of Creation itself. She calls this “becoming a good relative.”

Giovale calls on people in the dominant culture to change course, to take responsibility for the impacts of colonization and institutionalized White supremacy. As a philanthropist and self-admitted beneficiary of settler colonialism, she has no apparent reason to call for change and good reason not to. From the vantage point of the dominant culture in the United States in 21st century, Giovale is speaking against her own interests.

But, from the vantage point of the Earth and its sacred waters, Giovale explains that challenging the assumptions of hierarchy, extractive logic and White supremacy is in the interest of all of humanity and all of Creation. 

At a moment when climate change makes it clear that we all bear the consequences of colonial logic and the fallacy of perpetual growth, Giovale signals a way to change course. 

In contemplating her own position, she writes: “I accepted that in the United States, wealth is built on and extracted from stolen land.” Repairing this harm is the foundation of her call to institutional philanthropy, which she says was historically created to consolidate wealth. She enumerates remedies for “healing the vicious cycles of wealth” by centering Indigenous leadership and shifting colonial dynamics. 

Giovale calls for settler decolonization, which she defines as returning Indigenous land and life. She calls for reparations. “Decolonizing our minds,” she writes, “can help us to change destructive thoughts and patterns from the inside out.” She calls not only for change that is internal but for a world transformed.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 tells us God reconciled God’s self to us through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Giovale demonstrates what this looks like. It is disorienting to step away from our assumptions and to see things from another viewpoint. The resulting vertigo is deeply uncomfortable, so much so that there is a name for it: culture shock. 

Giovale steps into discomfort willingly. She invites the reader along to experience hope, healing and forgiveness and even to change the world. 

Correction and apology: In my June column, I referred to the work of Anika Reynar, Tina Fehr-Kehler and Lars Åkerson without citing it. Reynar, Fehr-Kehler and Åkerson wrote about their experience collaborating with Maya friends and partners in an AW article published in April. While my intention was to uplift their work, it was wrong not to cite the article directly. For that I apologize. On the AW website, there’s now a hyperlink in my column, “The Creator, present in soil and seed,” connecting to their article.