Patricia Barkaskas

Reimagining justice through community and Indigenous law

Patricia Barkaskas arrived at the University of Victoria at a turning point in her life. A first-generation university student, a young mother and a Métis woman searching for a place where questions of justice, history and responsibility could be explored with depth and honesty, she found in UVic not only an academic home but a framework that would shape the rest of her career.

“There was something going on here that was so different,” she recalls. “I really wanted to push myself for a more robust understanding of what it means to engage with justice and decolonization.”

Barkaskas completed her Bachelor of Arts in 2005, with coursework grounded in Indigenous histories and Women’s Studies. Her path to UVic was not linear. After beginning her studies in Alberta, she encountered institutional barriers that limited access to Indigenous-focused learning. A personal phone call from a UVic professor, inviting her to visit campus and explore the program, changed everything. That moment of being welcomed, seen and encouraged became emblematic of the kind of academic environment Barkaskas would later work to create for others.

Experiential, community-engaged learning at UVic left a lasting imprint. Courses that moved beyond the classroom—working with archives, engaging public history and learning alongside community partners—reinforced an understanding that justice cannot be abstract.

From learning to action

After pursuing graduate studies, Barkaskas worked as a legal historical researcher for the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. As the great granddaughter of a residential school Survivor, listening directly to others who had similar traumatic experiences and witnessing the limits of Canada’s legal responses clarified her next step.

“My family had always counted on me to be the breaker of cycles,” she says.

Today, Barkaskas is an associate professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, where she also served for nearly a decade as Academic Director of the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic. Located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the clinic provides free legal services to Indigenous community members while offering law students rigorous, trauma-informed and community-responsive training. Under Barkaskas’ guidance, the clinic evolved to meet changing needs—expanding beyond criminal defence to include class actions, rural and remote circuit court work and travel clinics serving Indigenous communities with limited access to legal support.

“The files were truly based on what the community needed from us,” she explains.

Transforming legal education and practice

Alongside her clinical work, Barkaskas has been instrumental in transforming legal education more broadly. She co-created the Indigenous Cultural Competency Certificate, one of the first programs of its kind in Canada. The eight-month experiential program emphasizes self-reflection, accountability and a deep understanding of colonial history and Indigenous legal perspectives. Barkaskas’ research has also focused on the revitalization of Métis legal orders, particularly as they relate to gendered and sexualized violence against Indigenous women, girls, trans and Two-Spirit people.

Even while working within Canada’s colonial legal system, she encouraged students to make space for Indigenous laws, values and responses to harm, asking what justice looks like when communities bring their own legal principles to the table.

“With Indigenous students, there's often a sense that they can't do the work they want to because they've been told their whole lives that they aren't capable of it or they've faced very real barriers every day of their lives,” Barkaskas says.

“I challenge them to see themselves in a new light—a light that is about how incredible they are, what they have to offer to the world, in service to their clients and to challenge outmoded ideas about what justice is.”

Beyond academia, Barkaskas has advised governments and served on justice-focused boards.

When she steps away from her professional roles, Barkaskas finds grounding on horseback. An equestrian with deep family connections to horses, she sees riding as a discipline of attention.

“It's a great way to remember to keep balance in your life and to be present. Horses are incredible responders, and so if you are with them and not fully present, they tell you,” she says.