Note from Andrea: As promised, here is the first of two special guest posts while I’m recovering from surgery (which went great!). First up is a post by the fabulous Dr. Adam Barker, who is not only one of my favourite humans, but also such an awesome academic that if I didn’t like him so much, I’d have to kill him (jk). 🙂 Born and raised in Hamilton, Dr. Barker is an expert in the history of colonialism in North America. In his academic work, he studies historical and contemporary relationships between Indigenous peoples and Canadian Settlers, while also working to provide the tools and frameworks that are needed to forge new and better ones. He, and his super-smart wife, Dr. Emma Battell Lowman were the ones who introduced me to the idea of settler colonialism back when we were all in graduate school (in the dark ages). He spends much of his spare time with Xena, pictured to the left, and just generally kicking butt on Twitter. If you like this post, I would highly recommend picking up the latest book from Drs. Barker and Battell Lowman, Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada.