Robert Louie is a Canadian First Nations leader, lawyer, and business person. He is known especially for his role in negotiating the Westbank Self-Government Agreement, which granted his band control over land management, language, and culture.[1]
He was chief of the Westbank First Nation from 1986 to 1996 and from 2002 to 2016 and served on the Task Group of the First Nations Summit.
[3][4] In September, 2022 he was returned to his former position as Westbank chief.[5]
Business
Since 2014 he has owned and operated Indigenous World, a collection of businesses[3]
With his wife Bernice, Louie founded the Indigenous World Winery, some of whose wines have won awards.[6]
He received the Queen Elizabeth 2nd Jubilee Medal in 2012, an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the Justice Institute of British Columbia in 2014 and the B.C. Aboriginal Business Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.[3]
In 2022 he received the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business Lifetime Achievement Award.[9][10]