Robert Sam

Chancellor's Community Recognition Award

Spring 2007 Convocation

Chief Robert Sam is the elected leader of the Songhees First Nation, a position he has held for more than 10 years.

Chief Sam was born and raised on Songhees land near the Township of Esquimalt, in Greater Victoria. He attended a residential school in Kamloops before moving to the St. Louis College for Boys in Victoria, and then going on to the University of Victoria. Chief Sam has been a leader within the Songhees Nation as a councillor since the 1960s, and has been elected chief councillor four times since 1996.

With Esquimalt Nation Chief Andy Thomas, Chief Sam was integral in prompting the federal and provincial governments to settle a claim last year over dispossessed land now occupied by the B.C. Legislature in downtown Victoria. In 2005, Chief Sam also successfully settled an 85-year-old land issue with the federal government regarding a railway spur on Songhees land.

On broader issues, Chief Sam has been the lead negotiator for the Songhees within the Te'Mexw Treaty Association, an association of five First Nations in southern Vancouver Island. He sits on the Assembly of First Nations chiefs' committee on treaties, is a board member for the First Nations Finance Authority and is on the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority board.

Within the Songhees government, Chief Sam has been integral in developing local bylaws, including land management, taxation and fire protection. He improved education for his people through an agreement with the Victoria School Board and an affiliation with Camosun College. Chief Sam operates a garbage disposal business and is actively involved in mentoring youth in such traditional skills as canoe racing.

Elected four times as chief of the Songhees First Nation, Robert Sam is a courageous leader and ambassador for the aboriginal people of southern Vancouver Island. At the treaty table and within the greater community, Chief Sam is a tenacious champion for aboriginal rights and Coast Salish cultural heritage.

Chief Sam has dedicated his life to improving the lives of all Songhees people, serving as a band councillor from the 1960s and as chief since 1996. He is a driving force behind Songhees economic development, establishing good governance on reserve land and reaching out to the community to improve access to education for his people.

Chief Sam's collaborative style has earned a place as a respected political leader in Greater Victoria. He has proven that with a firm moral compass based on strong spiritual beliefs, even a small First Nation can effectively work with all levels of government. Chief Sam's leadership skills were a key factor in the timely and successful negotiations over the removal of reserve land for the B.C. Legislature and a railway line, resolving tensions that reached back more than a century.

Chief Sam leads a community that still struggles with poverty and alienation but his unwavering focus has guided the Songhees people toward a healthier, brighter future. Thanks to Chief Sam's work as a director with British Columbia's aboriginal financial authority, First Nation communities on Vancouver Island and across B.C. also have brighter days ahead through better access to infrastructure funding.

For his service in protecting the dignity, rights and heritage of the Songhees and all aboriginal people, Royal Roads University takes great pleasure in conferring the Chancellor's Community Recognition Award on Chief Robert Sam.

Hych'ka.