Who We Are
Maxime Picard ~ President
Maxime Picard is the President of Yändata’.
Maxime is a proud Huron-Wendat from Wendake, and is the Director of Economic Development for the Huron-Wendat Nation Council (HWNC). A lover and great defender of his Nation, he is committed to the economic and social development of his Nation. As Director of the HWNC, Maxime leads the effort to research and generate opportunities to develop the financial autonomy of the Nation. As well as for Yändata', he is President or administrator of several other companies in which the Huron-Wendat Nation is a partner.
mpicard@yandataarchaeology.ca
Vincent Bourret ~ Director
Lisa Merritt ~
Vice-President & Secretary-Treasurer
Lisa Merritt is Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer of Yändata’.
Having worked for small archaeological consulting businesses (and run her own), Lisa is a Partner at ASI Heritage, the largest archaeological and cultural heritage consulting firm in Ontario, overseeing a team of dedicated staff as Director of the Environmental Assessment Division. Responsible for archaeological assessments triggered by federal, provincial, and municipal infrastructure, Lisa has over 20 years experience in both Indigenous and Euro-Canadian archaeology, having completed and/or directed hundreds of single and multi-phased assessments and mitigative excavations throughout northern and southern Ontario.
lmerritt@yandataarchaeology.ca
Vincent Bourret is one of four Yändata’ Directors.
Wendat from the Bastien family, Vincent is the director of the Onyionhwentsïio’, the territorial office of the Council of the Wendat Nation. In that role, he manages a team responsible for defending the rights and interests of the Nation on the land the Wendat ancestors thrived in the past, and for which the Wendat are still responsible today and through the next seven generations. His team manages consultations in Wendake Yehen’ (former Wendake in the Wendat language), to ensure the Nation’s heritage is respected, protected, and conserved. He holds a PhD in biology, specialised in animal population genetics. He worked as a wildlife forensic biologist for many years and is still engaged in this field as a lecturer.
vincent.bourret@wendake.ca
Robert MacDonald, PhD ~
Director
Robert MacDonald is one of four Yändata’ Directors.
Rob is Managing Partner of ASI Heritage, the largest archaeological and cultural heritage consulting firm in Ontario. Rob has had extensive experience directing and/or managing hundreds of single- and multi-phased archaeological assessment and salvage excavation projects throughout southern and eastern Ontario. He has also played a key role in the development of pre-contact Indigenous site potential models for the archaeological management plans of fifteen municipalities, including the District Municipality of Muskoka, the City of Brantford, the Regional Municipality of Halton, the Regional Municipality of Niagara, Simcoe County, the City of Ottawa, the City of Kingston, the City of Sault Ste. Marie, and the City of Toronto. His archaeology and heritage management projects include the Highway 407 East project undertaken on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
rmacdonald@yandataarchaeology.ca
Clara MacCallum Fraser, PhD ~
Executive Director
Clara lives in Toronto, enmeshed in a layered landscape of Indigenous territories (including Wendake Yehen’, former Wendake), treaties, colonialism, and the stories told and untold of ancestors (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike) and the generations to come. Her research and work over the past two decades has focused on Indigenous-settler relations, primarily in Ontario. Clara received her doctorate in Environmental Studies from York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (right beside the 15th century Wendat village known now as the Parsons site), and her Masters in Planning at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University). Clara co-founded the Shared Path Consultation Initiative with Carolyn King (Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation), a charitable organisation focused on issues that emerge where land use planning intersects with Aboriginal and Treaty rights, and was the Executive Director until 2021. Clara has worked for Moose Deer Point First Nation’s Lands Department, establishing their Consultation Worker position, and as a Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Environment’s Indigenous Programs and Policy Unit.
cfraser@yandataarchaeology.ca