The BulleTin • Sunday, auguST 21, 2022 A3
HAWAII | SACRED MOUNTAIN
Hawaii seeks end to strife over astronomy
BY AUDREY MCAVOY
associated Press
HONOLULU — For more
than 50 years, telescopes and
the needs of astronomers have
dominated the summit of
Mauna Kea, a mountain sacred
to Native Hawaiians that’s also
one of the finest places in the
world to study the night sky.
That’s now changing with
a new state law saying Mauna
Kea must be protected for fu-
ture generations and that sci-
ence must be balanced with
culture and the environment.
Native Hawaiian cultural ex-
perts will have voting seats on
a new governing body, instead
of merely advising the sum-
mit’s managers as they do now.
The shift comes after thou-
sands of protesters camped on
the mountain three years ago
to block the construction of a
state-of-the-art observatory,
jolting policymakers and as-
tronomers into realizing the
status quo had to change.
There’s a lot at stake: Native
Hawaiian advocates want to
protect a site of great spiritual
importance. Astronomers hope
they’ll be able to renew leases
for state land underneath their
observatories, due to expire in
11 years, and continue making
revolutionary scientific discov-
eries for decades to come. Busi-
ness and political leaders are
eager for astronomy to support
well-paying jobs in a state that
has long struggled to diversify
its tourism-dependent econ-
omy.
To top if off, the new au-
thority may offer a first-
in-the-world test case for
whether astronomers can find
a way to respectfully and re-
sponsibly study the universe
from Indigenous and cultur-
ally significant lands.
“We’ve been here for centu-
ries. We are not gone; we are
still here. And we have knowl-
edge that would produce a
feasible management solution
that would be more inclusive,”
said Shane Palacat-Nelson, a
Native Hawaiian who helped
Caleb Jones/aP
The sun sets behind telescopes July 14, 2019, at the summit of the Big Island’s Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
draft a report that laid the
foundation for the new law.
At issue is the summit of
Mauna Kea, which sits 13,803
feet above sea level. In 1968,
the state gave the University of
Hawaii a 65-year lease for land
that the school subleases to
leading global research insti-
tutions in exchange for a share
of observation time.
Astronomers like Mauna
Kea’s summit because its clear
skies, dry air and limited light
pollution make it the best
place to study space from the
Northern Hemisphere. Its
dozen huge telescopes have
played key roles in advancing
humanity’s understanding of
the universe, including mak-
ing some of the first images
of planets outside our solar
system. Astronomer Andrea
Ghez used one to prove the ex-
istence of a supermassive black
hole at the center of our galaxy,
for which she shared the 2020
Nobel Prize in physics.
But the telescopes have also
changed the summit land-
scape and have increasingly
upset Native Hawaiians who
view the place as sacred. The
2019 protests by people call-
ing themselves “kia’i,” or pro-
tectors of the mountain, were
aimed at stopping the con-
struction of the biggest and
most advanced observatory
yet: the $2.65 billion Thirty
Meter Telescope, or TMT,
backed by the University of
California and other institu-
tions.
Law enforcement arrested
38 elders, mostly Native Ha-
waiians, which only attracted
more protesters. Police with-
drew months later after TMT
said it wouldn’t move for-
ward with construction right
away. Protesters stayed put
but closed camp in March
2020 amid concerns about
COVID-19.
What steps to take?
The episode pushed law-
makers to seek a new ap-
proach.
The result is the new gov-
erning body, the Mauna Kea
Stewardship and Oversight
Authority, which will have a
board of 11 voting members.
The governor will appoint
eight. Gov. David Ige hasn’t
set a date for announcing his
nominees, who will go before
the state Senate for confirma-
tion. He said more than 30
have applied.
Palacat-Nelsen said tradi-
tional Native Hawaiian knowl-
edge could help the authority
determine how large a foot-
print manmade structures like
telescopes should have at the
summit.
“Do we take heavy steps?
Do we take light steps? When
do we take steps? What sea-
sons do we take steps?” Pala-
cat-Nelsen said. “All that type
of knowledge is embedded in
the majority of our stories, our
traditional stories that were
handed down.”
The board will have this ex-
pertise because one member
of the authority must be a rec-
ognized practitioner of Native
Hawaiian culture and another
a direct descendant of a Na-
tive Hawaiian practitioner of
Mauna Kea traditions.
Central to the Native Ha-
waiian view of Mauna Kea
is the idea that the summit
is where gods dwell and hu-
mans aren’t allowed to live. A
centuries-old chant says the
mountain is the oldest child of
Wakea and Papawalinu’u, the
male and female sources of all
life. To this day, the mountain
draws clouds and rainfall that
feeds forests and fresh water to
communities on Hawaii’s Big
Island.
Lawmakers drafted the law
after a working group of Na-
tive Hawaiian cultural experts,
protesters, observatory work-
ers and state officials met to
discuss Mauna Kea. Their re-
port, which dedicated a large
chunk to the historical and
cultural significance of the
mountain, formed the founda-
tion of the new law.
Several kia’i who served
on that working group sup-
port the authority. The House
speaker has nominated one
kia’i leader for the board.
But some longtime tele-
scope opponents are critical,
creating questions about how
broad the authority’s commu-
nity support will be.
Kealoha Pisciotta, who has
been part of legal challenges
against TMT and other obser-
vatory proposals since 1998,
said Native Hawaiians should
at minimum have an equal
standing on the board.
“You don’t have a real say.
It’s designed to create an il-
lusion of having consent and
representation in a situation
where we really don’t,” said Pi-
sciotta, a spokesperson for the
groups Mauna Kea Hui and
Mauna Kea Aina Hou.
Lawmakers said the pres-
sure to address Hawaii’s tele-
scope standoff isn’t just com-
ing from within the state but
also from the U.S. astronomy
community.
State Rep. David Tarnas
pointed to a report by a com-
mittee of astronomers from
across the country declaring
there’s a need to develop a new
model of collaborative deci-
sion-making together with
Indigenous and local commu-
nities.
“This is not just the Big Is-
land issue, it’s not just a state
issue, but I believe it’s a global
issue,” said state Sen. Donna
Mercado Kim. “I believe that
the world is watching to see
how we deal with this.”
The TMT matter, mean-
while, remains unresolved: Its
backers still want to build on
Mauna Kea, though they have
selected a site in Spain’s Ca-
nary Islands as a backup.
The head of the University
of Hawaii’s astronomy pro-
gram said the authority could
help his own institution if it
“stabilizes the whole situation”
for Mauna Kea astronomy.
But Doug Simons said he’s
worried the authority might
not get up and running in
time to renew the summit
master lease and subleases.
The master lease requires
that all existing telescopes be
decommissioned and their
sites restored to their origi-
nal state by 2033 if the state
doesn’t authorize an extension.
Simons said it will take at
least five or six years to dis-
mantle the telescopes and as-
sociated infrastructure. That
means new lease arrange-
ments must be ready by 2027
or the observatories will have
to begin winding down.
“There’s no obvious way
around this,” Simons said. He
said he’s pressing for the au-
thority to be established as
soon as possible to maximize
time for negotiations and in-
evitable legal challenges.
Rich Matsuda, who works
for W.M. Keck Observatory
and served on the working
group, urged the eventual
board members to avoid being
“stakeholders with narrow in-
terests just trying to ensure that
they get their piece of the pie.”
Tensions over telescope
construction, he said, caused
people to lock down and avoid
discussing difficult issues sur-
rounding Mauna Kea. The
new law’s prioritization of the
mountain’s well being may al-
ter that, he said.
“My hope is that this gives
us a chance, if we do it right,
to change that dynamic,” Mat-
suda said.