That is not something you should be doing, instead create properties on the UserControl which the internals are bound to, then you have a clean interface.
e.g.
<UserControl Name="control" ...>
<ListView ItemsSource="{Binding ItemsSource, ElementName=control}">
<!-- ... -->
public class MyUserControl : UserControl
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty ItemsSourceProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("ItemsSource", typeof(IEnumerable), typeof(MyUserControl), new UIPropertyMetadata(null));
public IEnumerable ItemsSource
{
get { return (IEnumerable)GetValue(ItemsSourceProperty); }
set { SetValue(ItemsSourceProperty, value); }
}
}
<Window ...>
<local:MyUserControl x:Name="myUc"/>
<!-- ... -->
myUc.ItemsSource = new string[] { "Lorem", "Ipsum" };