Marie Haley operates The Seventh Generation Tours, an indigenous concept to act with a vision for the seven generations coming after us while understanding the generations who came before. Marie is a seventh-generation descendant of the French settlers to Akaroa.
With a wide-ranging background, Marie has worked in wildlife conservation, including three summers on Campbell Island, studying with American Indians in the USA and managing community conservation projects.
A passionate advocate of place-based learning, we connect more strongly with histories when told in the place they occur. We connect more strongly with the natural world when we have time and quiet to absorb them.
A Trustee of the Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū Geopark and working with Quiet Parks International to educate and protect natural quiet. Marie is also a farmer and conservationist on her land on Banks Peninsula, protecting the mauri/lifeforce of ecosystems while raising loved and happy animals and growing most of their families’ food.
Akaroa is unique in having 5 of the most important historic sites in New Zealand close together, which tell a complete settlement story. Ideal for a New Zealand History School Trip:
Tuhiraki is the marker of the first Polynesian settlers to Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula; Takapūneke, the location of the Brig Elizabeth Te Rauparaha massacre that directly led to the first British Resident in NZ; Ōnuku Marae where the Te Tiriti o Waitangi was first signed in the South Island; The Britomart Monument where the British demonstrated sovereignty of the South Island in the ‘Race-for-Akaroa’; Britomart Reserve where the Kemp Purchase of Canterbury forced the sale of 8.1 million hectares for £2000 in 1848.
