All photos by Danielle Da Silva

At the base of Mauna Kea, the world’s tallest mountain when measured from its ocean base, the largest land defense action in modern Hawai’ian history is currently taking place and the entire movement is being guided by love.

The Hawai’ian cultural principal of kapu aloha (love and respect) has been adopted as the central strategy of non-violent direct action in organizing a frontline blockade to protect the summit of the Mauna Kea from becoming a construction site for what would be the world’s largest telescope, known as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

For Indigenous Hawai’ians, it could not be any other way. In their cosmology, Mauna Kea is the origin place of the Hawai’ian people. The Hawai’ian genealogy teaches that the summit of the mountain is the meeting place of Earth Mother, Papahānaumoku, and Sky Father, Wākea, and that the Hawai’ian people are their direct descendants. Therefore, Mauna Kea is utmost sacred ground; it is the piko (umbilical cord) of Native Hawai’ian existence.

The mountain is home to innumerable lepa (altars), akua (gods and goddesses), burial and ceremonial sites that have been in use for as long as the island has been inhabited. Holidays and ceremonies are celebrated on the mountain, with families maintaining and visiting their specific lepa over generations. Some families bring the umbilical cords of newborn babies to the aquifer at the summit of the mountain to ground them in their homelands just as their ancestors had done.

As a church is to Christians or a mosque to Muslims, Mauna Kea is a sacred place for Native Hawai’ians; therefore being on the Mauna necessitates acting with the highest standards of protocol: to one another, the land and the ancestors. In ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi (the Native Hawai’ian language), this is referred to as kapu aloha, or state of love.

Although there are currently innumerable Indigenous land rights and sovereignty struggles around the world, Mauna Kea is distinct in that every action being taken for the protection of the mountain is being guided entirely by traditional Hawai’ian cultural values — of love for the land, for the community and for all of creation.

The threat to Mauna Kea

Although Mauna Kea is both crown land (lands belonging to the former king of the Hawai’ian Kingdom, Kamehameha) and a designated conservation area. Since 1968, 13 telescopes have been constructed on the summit of the mountain. Many of these were built for the international astronomy community without proper permits and against the wishes of the local community.

While some remain in use, other telescopes have been abandoned and left dormant. The plan to build the TMT has re-opened past wounds of scientific imperialism trouncing Native Hawai’ian cultural values and ways of life. This history is also one of prolonged efforts to protect the mountain. In fact, the TMT was slated to be built in 2015 but following island-wide protests, 31 arrests and global pressure, the project was forced back into the Hawai’ian courts.

The mountain is not only spiritually significant but also ecologically fragile, with unique biogeoclimatic zones and an aquifer that is the freshwater source for the Big Island. For decades there have been concerns over mismanagement of the observatories, including waste management and mercury spills.

Despite these unaddressed issues, the proposal to build the world’s largest telescope — led by the University of California and partner institutions from Canada, China, India and Japan, as well as the US philanthropic organization Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation — was approved in the Hawai’ian courts. The decision came on the heels of years of oppositional testimony from Native Hawai’ian Elders, knowledge keepers, professors, legal scholars and local residents.

The $1.4 billion TMT, marketed as “astronomy’s next-generation telescope,” is planned to be 18 stories high, nine stories down and five acres across. According to the project website, it “will allow astronomers to address fundamental questions in astronomy ranging from understanding star and planet formation to unraveling the history of galaxies and the development of large-scale structure in the universe.”

The University of Hawai’i at Hilo prepared an environmental impact statement that has become a subject of controversy following testimony of falsified information from a former employee and disregard for recommendations of the cultural impact assessment. Moreover, given that the university is one of the invested parties in the TMT, there is deep mistrust amongst the Mauna Protectors about the depth and accuracy of the report.

The mistrust stems from previous mismanagement of telescopes in the area as well as potential ulterior economic motives by the politicians driving the construction of the TMT — such as demonstrating building variances in conservation areas and opening up the Big Island to international development. While the TMT project manager has stated that they would be happy to build the project at an alternative location in the Canary Islands, Hawai’ian politicians have taken desperate action to push it through, declaring a state of emergency to bring in the National Guard.

In addition to the cultural impact of the desecration of the summit to build the TMT, which would include the destruction of alters, burial sites and ceremonial locations, questions remain about the environmental impact a structure of this size would have in a time of extreme climate change. Mauna Kea functions as a storm barrier for the rest of the Hawai’ian archipelago and it provides an essential freshwater source for the Big Island.

Past spills of sewage, ethylene glycol, diesel fuel, and toxic mercury mar the safety records of past telescopes that were a fraction of the size of the TMT, and no research has been done about the impact of the mega-project to the integrity of the summit of the mountain.