Robert Dennis Sr. is certainly one humble guy.
Despite receiving a rather prestigious award from the BC Achievement Foundation, the former longtime chief councillor of Huu-ay-aht First Nations feels awkward praise is being thrown his way.
Dennis was presented with the Award of Distinction for Lifetime Achievement through the foundation’s Indigenous Business Award program.
He was honoured during a ceremony held at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver on Oct. 7.
“I’ve been telling everyone it was kind of embarrassing because I’ve always looked at what Huu-ay-aht has achieved as being a team effort right through the whole process,” he said.
Dennis served as his First Nation’s chief councillor from 1995 through 2011. And he returned to the same position from 2015 until his final term expired in June of 2023.
Before becoming Huu-ay-aht’s elected chief, Dennis had also served 12 years as a councillor for his First Nation and three years as band manager.
“I always say that I’ve been really fortunate to have really strong connection to my past and to have listened to elders from the ‘50s and ‘60s and ‘70s, what they were saying, things where they had said we were mistreated and they needed to see corrected,” Dennis said. “That was a good guide.”
Dennis said that approach was adopted by the community in the early 1990s, which led to Huu-ay-aht members deciding to enter the treaty process.
It was then under Dennis’ leadership that a modern treaty, the Maa-nulth First Nations Final Agreement, was developed and eventually implemented in 2011.
Dennis said his biggest accomplishment while he was Huu-ay-aht’s chief councillor was ratifying and getting that treaty in place.
“That gave us the foundation to build our economy,” he said. “And it’s worked very effectively for the nation. The willingness to tough that out, because it was a touch and go to get it approved and move on in the process. I would say that was the one project I was most proud of. It was certainly the project that enabled us to build our economy that we have today.”
During his political career Dennis frequently talked about how it was better to be self-sufficient as a nation instead of relying on handouts.
“I’ve always said in my approach as a leader that I would rather be managing prosperity than poverty,” he said. “That’s what really drove me in terms of having a willingness to work long hours, set goals and objectives and don’t give up until you’ve achieved them.”
Dennis added the second project he’s most proud of during his tenure was getting a road upgraded from Port Alberni to the Huu-ay-aht village of Anacla and Bamfield.
“It’s safe to drive the road now and it’s in better condition than it used to be,” he said of the project, which was completed in the fall of 2023. “It’s something I started pursuing after we had done an economic study in 1996. We did the study that identified that in order to diversify our economy we needed a road upgrade. That would enable us to develop our tourism rather than being dependent on resource development.”
Dennis said it wasn’t always easy spearheading Huu-ay-aht initiatives.
“It became challenging because our governments change,” he said. “And our councils change over the years. For example, what was a priority 40 years ago isn’t a priority today. It’s a change of the time.”
Speaking of changes, Dennis, who is now 77, has been undergoing his share of them since his Huu-ay-aht term ended.
He’s trying to keep himself occupied by doing some consulting work with the company he’s owned.
“It’s hard to go from where you’re a busy person to all of a sudden being nothing,” he said. “So, I just look for a little bit of work to do.”
Dennis makes it clear, however, that he won’t be returning to political office. Ever.
“There’s going to be absolutely no chance of me resurfacing,” he said. “I had been given a task. I completed it.”
Through his consulting work though, Dennis would like to see Indigenous forestry prosper, where First Nations people benefit from forestry activity.
“We need to change how governments develop their policies moving forward because you can’t say that you’re giving First Nations an economic opportunity when they can’t even make money because the stumpage rate is too high,” he said.
Dennis was joined at the BC Achievement Foundation awards ceremony by various family members including his wife, son, a couple of his grandchildren, his older sister and a couple of nieces.
Some representatives from businesses who had worked for the First Nation were also in attendance.
Dennis said a highlight of the evening was that his son, also named Robert, sang him in during his introduction.
Meanwhile, a Nuu-chah-nulth company was also honoured with an award at the ceremony.
Tofino-based Ahous Adventures, owned by Ahousaht First Nation, was selected as the community-owned (one entity) business of the year.
