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Famed voyaging canoe captain and Hawaiian navigator Chad Kalepa Baybayan testified Wednesday in favor of building the Thirty Meter Telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea, arguing it would be “the highest level of desecration” to take any action that limits opportunities for future generations of Hawaii youth. Read more

HILO >> Famed voyaging canoe captain and Hawaiian navigator Chad Kalepa Baybayan testified Wednesday in favor of building the Thirty Meter Telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea, arguing it would be “the highest level of desecration” to take any action that limits opportunities for future generations of Hawaii youth.

Baybayan then underwent several hours of questioning by opponents of the $1.4 billion telescope, including C.M. Kahookahi Kanuha, who was a leader of last year’s anti-TMT protests on the mountain. Kanuha suggested that demonstrations comparable to those underway at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota could come to Hawaii if the project moves forward on Mauna Kea.

The Standing Rock protests are an attempt to block a $3.7 billion oil pipeline, being built across four states, that opponents say threatens local water supplies as well as Native American burial sites and prayer sites. More than 140 people were arrested in the Standing Rock demonstrations last week.

Baybayan has been part of the Polynesian voyaging renaissance for decades, sailing on voyages by the Hokule‘a canoe in the South Pacific, and to the West Coast and Japan. He testified on the seventh day of a contested case hearing over the TMT at the Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo, and was called as a witness for the University of Hawaii in support of the project.

Baybayan is an employee of the University of Hawaii working on the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s Malama Honua Worldwide Voyage, and is the former resident navigator for the Imiloa Astronomy Center. Imiloa is part of the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and UHH is applying for the conservation district permit for the TMT that is the subject of the contested case hearing.

Development plans for TMT called for construction to begin on the telescope in 2015, but work on the project was repeatedly blocked last year by protesters who contend the mountain is sacred and that construction of TMT would be an act of desecration.

Baybayan described the quest for knowledge on Mauna Kea as a “sacred mission,” and cited the example of an ancient adze quarry on Mauna Kea as evidence that pre-contact Hawaiians took resources from the mountain. They did so “with the full consent and in the presence of their gods,” Baybayan said in written testimony.

Using Mauna Kea for astronomy is consistent with using materials from the Mauna Kea quarry to fashion tools, and astronomy has been beneficial because it introduced young people to the process of modern exploration and discovery, he said.

Baybayan also noted ancient Hawaiians used the stars to navigate, and said he is “a descendant of some of the best naked-eye astronomers the world has ever known.”

“It is culturally consistent to advocate for Hawaiian participation in a field of science that continued to enable that tradition, and a field of work in which we ought to lead,” he said in written testimony. “I firmly believe that the highest level of desecration rests in actions that remove the opportunity and choices from the kind of future our youth can own.”

Kanuha probed Baybayan’s views on Mauna Kea, which Baybayan described as a “cultural treasure.” Baybayan said he is a Christian, but agreed the mountain has been used for worship and as a burial site. He acknowledged construction of the 18-story observatory would change the landscape on the mountain, but said it would not “deface” Mauna Kea.

Kanuha also questioned Baybayan about the 2015 protests at Mauna Kea, and Baybayan said those protests represented a cultural and spiritual “reawakening” comparable to protests and activism that resulted in changes such as an end to military bombing on Kahoo­lawe. Baybayan said events such as those in the 1970s “shaped my awareness.”

When asked about the arrests on the mountain in 2015, Baybayan replied, “I believe that people have to stand up for what they believe in, so I believe if they are arrested, it’s part of the process.” He said that Hawaiians “absolutely” have a right to protect their sacred sites.

Kanuha also asked Baybayan whether building the TMT “is worth bringing a situation like what’s taking place in Standing Rock to Hawaii.”

“Yes, I think it is,” Baybayan said.

In his final question, Kanuha jokingly asked Baybayan that if the TMT were built, would it “finally be able to locate the treaty of annexation legally and lawfully ceding the kingdom of Hawaii to the United States of America?”

Spectators in the hearing room at the Naniloa erupted into laughter and applause at the reference to what some Hawaiians believe was the illegal incorporation of Hawaii into the United States. The Mauna Kea protests in 2015 became a magnet for activists seeking to restore Hawaiian sovereignty.

Baybayan was the third witness in the contested case, and supporters and opponents of the TMT project have indicated they plan to call about 85 witnesses.

This is the second contested case hearing for the TMT project, which is currently on hold after the state Supreme Court invalidated the project’s conservation district use permit in December and ordered a new hearing.

TMT officials hope to obtain a permit by the end of this year or early next year in order to begin construction by April 2018. Mauna Kea is the first choice for the TMT, but officials with the telescope have selected a mountain in the Canary Islands, Spain, as the primary alternative to Hawaii in case they cannot win approval to build on Mauna Kea.

UH officials and the Hawaii island business community have worked for years to promote development of the TMT, which would be the most powerful telescope in the world.

Opponents of the project contend the university has failed to meet the legal requirements for issuing a new permit for the TMT, and that the Board of Land and Natural Resources has failed in its duty to properly manage the conservation land on the mountain.

Correction: An earlier version of this story did not specify Chad Baybayan’s connections to the University of Hawaii.