Meghan Miner Murray

Here is what you need to know about the dispute in Hawaii.

What are the protests all about?

Several hundred Native Hawaiians and Hawaiian rights activists have been camped for almost a week at the foot of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano, blocking the only road to the top of the mountain. That has kept construction equipment from reaching the summit to start building a $1.4 billion scientific project, the Thirty Meter Telescope, and it has forced other scientific facilities at the summit to shut down. Though the protests have been peaceful, at least 33 people have been arrested, given citations and released.

Why do scientists want to build there?

The Thirty Meter Telescope, designed by a consortium of universities and research institutes in the United States, Canada, China, India and Japan, will use an immense mirror and some of the world’s largest sensors to peer deep into the universe, providing images at 12 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. At about 14,000 feet above sea level, the summit of Mauna Kea provides some of the world’s best viewing conditions of the night sky, with clear air and very little light pollution. That’s why there are already about a dozen other active telescopes there.

Why would Native Hawaiians object to a telescope?

The problem is not the device, but the location. The mountain, called Mauna O Wakea by Native Hawaiians, is the tallest in the islands, and its summit is considered sacred in traditional Hawaiian culture — the place where the sky god, Wakea, met with Papa Hanau Moku, the earth goddess, leading to the creation of the islands. Only the highest-ranking chiefs were historically believed to be fit to go there. There are other cultural sites on the mountain, including a sacred lake, significant burial sites and a historic quarry where stone tools were made.

Telescopes have been on Mauna Kea for many years. Why are people so upset about this one?

The protesters say the construction of the other telescopes desecrated the mountain, and they do not trust promises that the Thirty Meter Telescope will be the last one built — assurances they say they have heard before. They are concerned about any further alterations to the summit.

How did the dispute get to this point?

Since 2009, when Mauna Kea was selected as the site, the telescope project has gone through numerous environmental and construction permit reviews, and it even received a traditional Hawaiian blessing in 2014. Construction was originally supposed to start in 2015, but it was delayed by protests, court battles and Gov. David Ige to allow time to resolve some issues that opponents had raised, including decommissioning and removing older telescopes on the summit. On June 20, the project got the final go-ahead to start construction in mid-July.

What do the protesters hope to accomplish?

Halting the telescope is the immediate aim, but the protesters’ larger goal is to bring wider attention to their grievances about the state’s economic interests being given priority over Native Hawaiian cultural and land use rights. Their cause has begun to resonate across the country, much as the Dakota Access dispute did.

There have been supportive demonstrations not just in Honolulu but in mainland cities like Las Vegas, and more are planned. Native rights activists elsewhere have shared messages and images of support on social media. Hundreds of astronomers from around the world signed a letter published in the journal Nature that opposes the arrests of protesters and the ways the project has been pushed ahead.

On the other hand, many Hawaii residents, including some Native Hawaiians, believe that the protests are misguided. They favor construction of the telescope, saying it will create 140 well-paid technical jobs and add $150 million a year to the state’s economy.

What has the state done about the situation?

Ige has deployed unarmed National Guard troops to Mauna Kea to assist the construction crews and cordon off parts of the mountain. Hawaii County law enforcement officers, many of whom have Native Hawaiian roots, have recently received crowd management and de-escalation training. Extra police officers have been sent from Honolulu to assist with crowd control.

For years, the state has provided for Native Hawaiian access to the summit, and it agreed to dismantle older telescopes at the request of activists. But tensions were worsened in late June when the University of Hawaii, which leases the land that the telescopes are built on, removed two ahu stone altars that had been built by protesters in 2015.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/us/hawaii-telescope-protest.html" id="9f45077a-c01f-3586-ad44-b215a30d1924">The New York Times</a>.

A last-ditch effort by Native Hawaiians to stop construction at a culturally significant site on Hawaii’s Big Island has begun to attract national attention — echoing in some ways the protests by Native Americans in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access pipeline project.

Why Are Native Hawaiians Protesting Against a Telescope?

Politics

Local

Filla

World

News

Football

Ghana Premier League

Black Stars

Sports

Celebrities

Music

Movies

Entertainment

Fashion

Beauty & Health

Relationships & Weddings

Food & Travel

Lifestyle

Domestic

International 

Business

About

Highlights

Selection Criteria

Jury

Terms And Conditions

FAQs

Pulse Influencer Awards

Explore categories

Pulse Ghana is the most followed news and entertainment platform, informing and engaging young Ghanaians round the clock, providing updates by the hour.

Meghan Miner Murray

Articles written by the author

Why Are Native Hawaiians Protesting Against a Telescope?