Mauna a Wākea: Settler Colonialism in Hawai'i

• The article examines the conflict over Mauna a Wākea and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and its relation to settler colonialism in Hawai'i.
• The conflict highlights the struggle between Native Hawaiians and those who advocate for large science projects.
• Advocates for the TMT view it as a promise of jobs, economic stimulus, STEM education funding, and advancing scientific discovery, while Kanaka 'Õiwi see it as desecration of one of the most sacred sites in the islands.
• The TMT is a $1.4 billion observatory, potentially the world's largest telescope, planned for Mauna Kea's summit.

Conflicting Perspectives

• TMT advocates emphasize the urgency of modern astronomy and draw parallels to ancient Hawaiian sea voyaging.
• The Western science conflates modernity with settler culture, portraying Kanaka 'Õiwi opposition as selfish and unreasonable.
• TMT proponents believe exploration and discovery are universal human aspirations.
• The ideologies of science and multiculturalism define rationality, thus impacting the category of the human within hierarchies.
• Kanaka 'Õiwi are seen as a foil to the scientific settler state's sovereignty and desire to become native.
• The Mauna a Wākea struggle represents over a century of conflict against U.S. settler colonialism, elimination, and replacement practices.

Ideologies of Discovery

• Focus is directed toward ideologies, of discovery, belonging, possession, and knowledge related to big science.
• Rhetoric of big science is used by the state and astronomy advocates to remove Kanaka 'Õiwi from modernity and promote settler selfhood.
• Official narratives combined with the state's legal apparatus make Kanaka 'Õiwi ineligible as land caretakers.
• Native people appear as a threat to the modern scientific state and are delegitimized as irrational within Western science.
• Native Hawaiian are subjected to anti-Native racism and fetishized as an archeological remnant.
• Advocates for another telescope focus less on progress and more on maintaining control over land.
• Indigenous self-determination is confined to a permanent state of deferral.

Resistance

• Outrage over the permit issued to the University of Hawai'i for TMT construction led to Kanaka 'Õiwi resistance on Mauna Kea beginning in October 2014.
• Activists, primarily in their twenties, decided to physically defend the sacred mountain, opposing construction of the TMT.
• Blockades were set up to stop heavy equipment from reaching the summit.
• A semipermanent encampment evolved.
• "Kia'i" means guardian or caretaker in Hawaiian.
• The media characterized activists as "protestors" with negative connotations.
• Activists began self-identifying as kia'i to reshape public perception.
• The kia'i fought for the protection of the mountain from further development.
• A demonstration on June 24 resulted in dramatic daylong standoff and arrests.
• Blockades were formed across the road to the summit to slow down police and stall arrests.
• 'Õiwi women invoked the female kupua to confront police.
• Large stones were scattered across the unpaved road.
• Construction crews and law enforcement retreated, as the mist of Lilinoe shrouded the summit.
• Throughout the summer, there were more confrontations.
• Governor David Ige ordered "emergency rules," including a ban on overnight camping.
• A nighttime raid led to the arrest of seven women in prayer and ceremony.
• Solidarity actions broke out across local communities.
• News coverage proliferated across the United States and abroad with increased scholarly attention.
• Hashtags #WeAreMaunaKea, #KūKiaʻiMauna, #AoleTMT , and #ProtectMaunaKea went viral.
• In December, an Indigenous uprising incited the Hawai'i State Supreme Court to review and revoke the TMT's permit.
• The court's ruling was justified due to procedural error, not ethical considerations.

Sacredness

• Mauna Kea is often translated as "white mountain."
• "Kea" also refers to Wākea, a god representing the expanse of the sky.
• The mountain is the "hiapo" of five mountain peaks born to Papahānaumoku.
• "Papa" and "Wākea" are original ancestors in the genealogical succession.
• The Kumulipo links Kanaka 'Õiwi to 'āina (the land).
• The Kumulipo is a cosmogonical mele that describes the universe's origins and structure.
• Papa, Wakea, and their daughter, Hoʻohōkūkalani, are parents of the archipelago, the makaʻāinana, and the ali'i.
• Hoʻohōkūkalani's son, Hāloanakalaukapalili, was the first kalo (taro).
• The second son, Hāloa, was the first human and aliʻi to govern the community.
• Moʻolelo serves as ingeniously crafted metaphors with symbolic weight to teach responsibility.
• Kanaka ʻÕiwi are encouraged to care for the land as family.
• Mauna Kea is an elder sibling and ancestor.
• Mauna a Wākea is also a piko, meaning both “summit” and “umbilicus”.
• The human body has three piko: head, navel/umbilical cord, and genitals.
• Piko also signifies genealogical connection and is a spiritual center.
• The piko and 'iewe of newborn family members is deposited in hidden places on the summit to protect the child.
• There are other names for it, include: "ka piko kaulana o ka ʻāina,”
• Freshwater produces rich soil for Hawai'i Island so water forms are celebrated.
• Spirits attached to water forms are frequently women, including Lilinoe.
• Its namesake is Wākea, and the mountain is famous for the mana wahine it celebrates.
• The mountain symbolizes the bonds between the living individual and departed ancestors.
• Mauna a Wakea is an ancestor, a portal to the Gods, an elder sibling, and a primary water source.
• The natural world is part of a deeply held ethical positionality.
• Mauna a Wākea is located in a region called kuahea, an area where trees are stunted by altitude.
• The air is thin, sunlight harsh, and plant/animal life is sparse.
• It is the tallest mountain on the planet measured from the ocean floor to its peak.
• Altitude sickness is common.
• These conditions contributed to a sense of divine power and respect.
• The layers of meaning represent an 'Õiwi ontological relationship.

Historical context: Astronomy on Mauna Kea.

• Astronomers study the oldest, most distant light to understand universal origins.
• There is a constant demand for bigger, faster, and more powerful telescopes.
• Currently, many of the best observatories are located on Mauna Kea.
• Observations at the Keck Observatory resulted in the discovery of dwarf planets.
• Scientists suggest more powerful instruments are the only solution, such as the Thirty Meter Telescope.
• TMT would render distant objects visible with greater speed and clarity.
• What remained in question was the state of Hawaiʻi conservation district use permit.
• In 1968, the University of Hawaiʻi entered into a sixty-five-year lease with the state to build an observatory.
• In 1970s Four telescopes were built with no public consultation, management process, and governmental oversight.
• In the 1980s, two more telescopes went up without an approved management plan.
• Plans failed to address the impacts of industrial development on the summit.
• HRS 183 was retroactively make telescopes legal via a "resource subzone."
• Laws were written after the Conservation District laws.
• Final EIS states there are 12 facilities, but in reality there are 21 telescopes.
• Mauna Kea is prized for having little atmospheric turbulence, stable, dry and cold air.
• It rises to over 40 percent of the earth's atmosphere and has a high number of clear nights.
• It is accessible and is located less than two hours from Hilo and five hours from the mainland United States.
• The cultural bias within conventional notions of the “human” and knowledge are underscored.
• The claim to universal truth reproduces Western science.
• The needs of Indigenous communities are supplanted by astronomers.

Historical Context

• In 1959, the territorial government was to assume a relationship of guardianship over Native Hawaiians.
• Native Hawaiians cannot sue the U.S. government for misuse of lands and retain a one-fifth interest in the "Ceded Lands.”
• Conspirators transferred these lands to the United States under the auspices of annexation.
• The lands were renamed “Public Lands,” to be controlled by the government of the Territory of Hawaiʻi.
• When Hawaiʻi was made a state in 1959, authority over these lands was then transferred to the state of Hawaiˈi.
• 'Õiwi were fighting other battles.
• These struggles included struggles over Native rights, access to land, legal protections for cultural practices.
• Kanaka ‘Õiwi in the 1960s and 1970s did not consent to the development of the mountain.
• Newspaper editorials, opinion pieces, and public events were held.
• This generation of Hawaiians was beginning to develop a sense of community activism.
• The Hawaiian Renaissance was inspired by the American civil rights struggles.
• A new era of Native cultural revitalization in arts, sciences, language, dance, history, and other traditional knowledge was ushered in.
• Kūʻē petitions signatures blocked ratification of two treaty attempts to annex Hawaiʻi.
• The first five telescopes were erected with limited media attention.
• The U.S. Navy used the island of Kahoʻolawe for target practice for over forty years.
• 'Õiwi fought rising tourism development.
• There was a collective political transformation.
• Kanaka 'Õiwi had developed a political consciousness.
• A damaging audit found that after 30 years of construction, the University of Hawaiʻi’s management was inadequate.
• A lawsuit against NASA followed the federal level.
• Outrigger Telescopes project was defeated.
• A permit allowed astronomy development with no management plan.
• Community groups appealed.
• State lawmakers followed with an audit that three decades caused ‘significant, substantial and adverse’ harm to the resources of the summit.
• Further development must be conducted with approval of a management plan.
• Withdrew for the development of a management plan
• the natural resources/ decommisioning plan were set.

State Intervention with the science

• Nothing had much of an effect here
• The group that presented the astronomy plan began to
• They began to use the term ‘cultural sensitivity’ in describing the right way todo the TMT they were committing
• They decided to undertake a campaign to assure the community and promise one million a year on science education in Hawai`i schools
• All were asked with some even sitting on the board
• Advocates wanted to disqualify while having people believe in giving adequate thought
• The TMT corporation was committed
• There was a new sense of cultural awareness of awareness, sensitivity and culture
• Liberal multiculturalism has now became important in skepticism of people
• Approves plan and denies those who wanted to Deny due process Supreme court reversed because the BLNR didn’t follow due process Had to do with ideology/ state funded process Far from what society wanted

Indigenous rights

• Asserts claims to get the Native sovereignty that was never settled
• the bodies had made their state
• The new desire for Hawai’I leads to new opposition
• Native rights have to stand by their views
• There is a constant distortion because there historical grounds are less powerful for the grounds
• Any deviation of the the roles goes to show the state image within what hawiian could

Claim

• Neil spoke on attempt to have it investor
• He says nothing will get in the way of those whom have less significance than science and culture
• Has turned it into as gift
• Has made the process as multicultural ethic
• It suggest Native will be considered excessive or too excessive for the world
• With all the new construction the are doing these things in society it would come out
• Colonization is now coming in

Gender theory

• A large group that goes against views is said to turn back on science .
• People have made it so technology equals superiority
• There is a clear distinction by the new body
• How women show pain are recast
• Women of this new nature have new violence
• This shows by the new dogma which is not to be dismissed
• People are against it for the wrong or right reasons
• I had tried garner supporter project
• She did it by inciting fear attacks
• A new level of supreme is used to by all groups
• Now shows native is new project
• Her rhetoric tries to create innocent subjects

Conclusion

• The Indigenous and people are to be free with our world
• The colonial will say can these people even be in this world
• The characterization of Hawaiians turns the Native subject to make a path for self-authorization
• To know the real human the assembly is so that the relation is in full view
• Made native have low technology that isn’t correctable Colonial will try and stop the Natives for a better modern life
• In hawaiin tropeds roam over land use
• Kanaka is needed to be a theart to society
• Only in a manageable state
• In need, they are a reflection of that time
• Hawaiians have high points that are a threat to coherence and conductor
• Will just keep getting smaller due to low rates from modernization