Patricia Barkaskas

Associate Professor (Limited Term)

Strategic Advisor to the Dean for the National Centre for Indigenous Laws

Patricia Barkaskas

Patricia Barkaskas is Strategic Advisor to the Dean for the National Centre for Indigenous Laws and Associate Professor (limited term) in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria. She previously held the positions of Academic Director of Indigenous Legal Studies (2021-2022) and Academic Director of the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic (2014-2022) at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. Her current and future teaching and research interests include Indigenous laws, access to justice, clinical legal education, and decolonizing and Indigenizing law, particularly examining the value of Indigenous pedagogies in experiential and clinical learning for legal education. Patricia is Métis from Alberta.

Patricia has practiced in the areas of child protection (as parent's counsel), criminal, family, as well as civil litigation and prison law. She has worked closely with Indigenous peoples in their encounters with the justice system and has worked for Residential school survivors as a historical legal researcher for the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. In addition, Patricia has written Gladue reports for all levels of court in BC. 

Patricia holds an M.A. in History, with a focus on Indigenous histories in North America, and a J.D., with a Law and Social Justice Specialization, both from the University of British Columbia.