{"id":141120,"date":"2019-08-26T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=141120"},"modified":"2019-09-02T16:02:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T15:02:58","slug":"hawaii-mauna-kea-is-only-latest-thing-they-want-to-take-we-will-not-give-it-to-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/08\/hawaii-mauna-kea-is-only-latest-thing-they-want-to-take-we-will-not-give-it-to-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai’i: Mauna Kea Is only Latest Thing They Want to Take, ‘We Will Not Give It to Them’"},"content":{"rendered":"

So far Hawaiians have managed to stop all efforts to begin construction through legal challenges and civil disobedience.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Uncle Billy Freitas, pictured here with Kealoha Pisciotta, was the first kupuna arrested.\u00a0 (Photo by Anne Keala Kelly)<\/p><\/div>\n

21 Jul 2019 – <\/em>Mauna Kea, also known as Mauna a Wakea, is a 13,800 foot high mountain on Hawai\u2018i Island, and considered the most sacred site to Kanaka \u2018\u014ciwi, the Native Hawaiian people. Named after W\u0101kea, Father Sky, it is home to a number of religious deities, and is a traditional burial ground for the most revered ali\u2018i (royalty) and kahuna (priests). The spiritual and cultural significance of the mauna<\/em> predates the European-American colonization of the earth by millennia.<\/p>\n

Hawaiians have fought against Western astronomy on the summit since the industry got a foothold there in the late 1960s. Fifty years and 13 telescopes later, the newest addition, if the state and the TMT Corporation have their way, will be the Thirty Meter Telescope.<\/p>\n

So far Hawaiians have managed to stop all efforts to begin construction through legal challenges and civil disobedience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

One of hundreds of vehicles lining the Saddle Road, Hwy 200
(Photo by Anne Keala Kelly)<\/p><\/div>\n

The first protest on Mauna Kea disrupted the internationally live-streamed groundbreaking ceremony in October 2014. That was followed by an around the clock vigil that began in March of 2015. Then there were 31 arrests in April, and a few months later in June, a day-long blockade that forced a convoy of workers and equipment to turn around resulted in 11 arrests.<\/p>\n

While news media typically portray resistance to the telescope as Indigenous culture versus Western science, Hawaiians who oppose the project are quick to point out historically relevant events that have led up to this moment. Among those are the U.S. militarily backed overthrow of Queen Lili\u2018uokalani\u2019s government, the 1898 U.S. takeover, and what Hawaiians refer to as the 1959 \u201cfake statehood.\u201d The telescope construction is experienced by Hawaiians as part of an ongoing lineage of more than a century of oppression, racism, and forced Americanization that has taken Hawaiian land, exploited and commercialized Hawaiian culture, and normalized the practice of desecrating Hawaiian sacred sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis mountain represents the last thing they want to take that we will not give to them,” said longtime activist Walter Ritte.<\/p>\n

Now, as week one of the latest standoff between Hawaiians and law enforcement has ended, a week that included the arrests of 33 kupuna, or elders, two things are clear. Hawaiians have no plans of giving up their blockade, and Governor David Ige, a Democrat, has no intention of postponing efforts to move the Thirty Meter Telescope\u2019s construction equipment onto the summit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Leaders of the movement to protect Mauna Kea.
(Photo by Anne Keala Kelly)<\/p><\/div>\n

Kapu Aloha<\/strong><\/p>\n

Healani Sonoda-Pale, activist and spokesperson for Ka Lahui Hawai\u2018i Political Action Committee, was still reeling from the governor\u2019s Friday afternoon press conference, as she walked me through the large encampment at the base of Pu\u2018u Huluhulu. Located across the Saddle Road (Hwy 200) from the Mauna Kea Access Road, where Ritte and others chained themselves to a cattle grid earlier in the week, the area has been designated a pu\u2018uhonua<\/em>. That means it is a place of refuge for the thousands who have arrived to stop the telescope\u2019s construction. Standing in the Mauna Medic tent, which can best be described as a spotless, well-organized space where people receive free lomilomi massage and treatment of minor injuries, she expressed her disappointment with Governor Ige. On Friday afternoon, he held a press conference at the Hilo Airport. Though it is only a thirty-minute drive from the protest, he never left the airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard him say that we\u2019re dirty, and how we are not keeping our pu\u2018uhonua <\/em>clean, I thought, wow, he\u2019s going to have to come up with better racist tropes than the dirty Hawaiian,\u201d Sonoda-Pale said. \u201cBecause we\u2019ve been called that since even before my parents were kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ige had, indeed, said, \u201cThere are thousands of people on the mountain\u201d with \u201cinadequate bathroom and rubbish facilities \u2026 and we\u2019re seeing the impacts on the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contrary to the governor\u2019s assertions, however, the camp is clean, the protestors have hired their own portable latrine service, and they rented gas heaters to keep people warm at night. There is nothing unattended. The food tent is a culinary camp-out delight. And the entire operation, on both sides of the highway is being conducted under a strict code of conduct referred to as kapu aloha<\/em>, a refrain that has characterized every protest against the Thirty Meter Telescope. Kapu aloha <\/em>is a cultural practice of non-violence, a reaffirmation of the power of peaceful civil disobedience even in the face of injustice. Which is why the governor\u2019s words and actions were so offensive.<\/p>\n

Hours after the elders were arrested, Ige issued an emergency proclamation, an act usually reserved for natural disasters and situations of extreme peril. He said it was to allow broader options for law enforcement, including using the National Guard. Photos of uniformed members of the guard at the Honolulu Airport heading for Hawai\u2018i Island began circulating on social media the next day.<\/p>\n

But during his Friday press conference, Ige painted a picture of a protest on the verge of chaos, citing \u201cdrug and alcohol use,\u201d and poor leadership that has \u201cnot been able to maintain order and the neutral terms of the pu\u2018uhonua<\/em>.\u201d Further, he said that \u201cthe emergency proclamation remains in effect because of this unsafe situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Trask Ohana. Photo by Anne Keala Kelly<\/p><\/div>\n

Lakea Trask, one of the activists who stood vigil on Mauna Kea for months during 2015, comes from a family of cultural practitioners, teachers and activists. Most notably, his aunties Haunani-Kay Trask and Mililani Trask are remembered as leaders of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement during the 1980s and 90s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor is using doublespeak,\u201d Trask said. \u201cHe says Hawaiians are trashing the area, but that\u2019s pure agitprop, especially considering what\u2019s been done to Mauna Kea. It\u2019s sad to see the settler state acting like fascists. We know how corrupt the state is, we know they\u2019re lying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the leaders of the resistance, and spokesperson for Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, the group responsible for legal challenges against the Thirty Meter Telescope and other telescopes going back more than 20 years, wasn\u2019t surprised by Ige\u2019s version of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state presents a false narrative. Hawaiians don\u2019t have an issue with Western astronomy, but the way it is conducted on Mauna Kea, the most sacred site to our people, undermines our traditional religious and cultural practices,\u201d Pisciotta said,<\/p>\n

Pisciotta has, countless times, raised the issue of environmental destruction to endangered species habitats on the summit, threats to one of the island\u2019s aquifers, and the fact that Mauna Kea is a traditional burial ground. There will be a court hearing and a possible Temporary Restraining Order. So Pisciotta spends her days in protest and her nights preparing the legal argument.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in people power and legal power,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the damage to our sacred mauna<\/em>, the arrests of our kupuna \u2026 Indigenous wisdom is needed now more than ever to help heal the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pu’u Huluhulu is the hill above the camp.
(Anne Keala Kelly)<\/p><\/div>\n

Colonizing the sacred<\/strong><\/p>\n

After images of elders being arrested were broadcast, protests and signs of solidarity with the people standing up to protect Mauna Kea began to spread. Traffic on Honolulu\u2019s H1 Freeway was brought to a crawl two days in a row when cars and mopeds flying large Hawaiian flags dominated all four lanes. Traffic cameras caught the events, which took place during the afternoon rush hour. And the number of protestors at the Pu\u2018u Huluhulu camp have swelled to more than 3,000.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it was painful for many Hawaiians to see beloved cultural practitioners and others being loaded into police vans, with their wrists zip-tied.<\/p>\n

Among those arrested was Onaona Trask, the mother of Lakea Trask, who refused to walk to the van and had to be carried. She teaches Hawaiian language to children, and said that one of the arresting officers was a former student and someone she had known since birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kaumaha<\/em> (with a heavy heart),\u201d she said. \u201cI talked to her in Hawaiian, and told her that I love her. I said, \u2018I carried you as a baby, so it\u2019s okay for you to carry me now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what colonization does to us\u201d she said. \u2014 \u201cIt divides and pits us against each other. But being colonized doesn\u2019t mean we aren\u2019t Hawaiian. The Thirty Meter Telescope is the colonizer trying to exterminate our identity and our sense of self as Hawaiians. But this mountain is so sacred to us we must protect it. In the Kumulipo (Hawaiian creation story) Mauna Kea is where our akua<\/em> (gods) dwell.\u201d<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

Anne Keala Kelly is a filmmaker, journalist and writer. Her articles and op-eds have appeared in the <\/em>Honolulu Star-Advertiser, The Nation, Honolulu Weekly, Honolulu Civil Beat, Hana Hou! Magazine, Big Island Journal, and<\/em> Indian Country Today. Her broadcast journalism has aired on <\/em>Free Speech Radio News, Independent Native News, Al Jazeera English, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Democracy Now!, The Environment Report, and more. And her film, “<\/em>Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai’i” has received international film festival awards. (annekealakelly.com<\/a>)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 newsmaven.io<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21 Jul 2019 – Mauna Kea is a 13,800-foot high mountain on Hawai\u2018i Island, and considered the most sacred site to Kanaka \u2018\u014ciwi, the Native Hawaiian people. Named after W\u0101kea, Father Sky, it is home to a number of religious deities, and is a traditional burial ground for the most revered ali\u2018i (royalty) and kahuna (priests). So far, Hawaiians have managed to stop all efforts to begin construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope through legal challenges and civil disobedience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":141121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,56,221,183],"tags":[229,1149,120,290,331,401,1312,1313,260,487,866,651,444,86,109,287,103,107,985,380,70,126,172],"class_list":["post-141120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","category-asia-pacific","category-indigenous-rights","category-religion-2","tag-activism","tag-asia-and-the-pacific","tag-conflict","tag-culture","tag-development","tag-environment","tag-hawaiian-culture","tag-hawaiian-religion","tag-history","tag-human-rights","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-justice","tag-nonviolence","tag-occupation","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-racism","tag-religion","tag-social-justice","tag-solutions","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}