Having been denied participation at the International Astronomical Union conference, foes of telescope construction atop Mauna Kea on Tuesday hand-delivered an invitation to their own event.
In a news conference outside the Hawai‘i Convention Center, opponents said they were asking the 2,500 scientists attending the triennial astronomy conference to join them Sunday at Kapiolani Park, where speakers will share their viewpoint of the Mauna Kea dilemma.
Foes of the planned Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea and the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope under construction on Hale-akala are expected to join environmentalists, anti-GMO activists and other “aloha aina” groups at Sunday’s Aloha Aina Unity March, which will start at 10 a.m. on Saratoga Road, continue through Waikiki and end at Kapiolani Park.
University of Hawaii Hawaiian-studies professor Jonathan Osorio told reporters Tuesday that he and UH colleague Lilikala Kame‘eleihiwa approached the IAU more than a week ago and asked whether a panel discussion could be devoted to the TMT controversy.
“We were denied,” he said. “We also asked them if we held it someplace else, will the leadership come? No, they will not.
“So we are holding our own event and telling these astronomers, ‘You want to learn something about the place you are holding your conference? Come to Kapiolani Park.’”
Asked for a response, Piero Benvenuti, deputy general secretary of the IAU, said the conference is not affiliated with the construction of individual telescopes, and the focus is to offer scientific presentations, policy discussions and meetings for the conference attendees.
“Given this, we were unable to accommodate any requests to change or alter our official conference program in light of the current situation regarding the TMT,” Benvenuti said in a statement.
The 29th IAU General Assembly, held for the first time in Hawaii, has been in the planning stages since 2009, he said, and was organized well in advance, making any changes difficult.
“The IAU is open to learning more about the protesters and advancing this important dialogue, however is unable to add any formal events at the conference at this time given these limitations,” Benvenuti said.
In front of the convention center entrance Tuesday morning, security guards and a handful of Honolulu police officers wearing aloha shirts kept an eye on more than 50 red-clad protesters holding upside-down Hawaii flags and protest signs.
One woman who identified herself only as Kanani was holding two signs and trying to catch the eye of astronomers inside the glass-walled convention hall.
“This is our sacred duty to our mountains,” she said. “We don’t want the telescopes on our mountains.”
Lanakila Mangauil, a leader of the Mauna Kea “protectors,” said the group was not there to protest the conference or astronomy in general.
“We have no problem with those things,” he said. “Our stance on the mauna is simply poor choice of location.”
Mangauil said the sacredness of the mountain extends beyond the ancient Hawaiian religion to a unique mountaintop ecosystem.
“Before we look into space, we need to malama this place,” he said. “We need to take care of this land.”
A handful of astronomers came out of the convention hall to watch the gathering, including Meg Urry, an astronomer at Yale University.
“I came to listen,” she said. “I enjoyed listening, and I look forward to hearing more. I like what they said about dialogue, and astronomers I talk to feel the same way, so I hope there are good conversations going forward.”
Also observing was Raymond Carlberg, a University of Toronto astronomy professor and TMT International board member.
“There clearly have been problems with the way the mountain has been managed,” he said as the protesters sang and chanted. “To some degree those are being addressed. But there’s unresolved controversy here. These political things come down to trust in the end. The trust needs to be re-established. I mean, no one wants to go on like this for another 100 years.”
Carlberg said Canada, which has invested more than $243 million in the TMT, is looking to local officials for guidance.
“It’s not our mountain. It’s a Hawaiian mountain. Basically, we’re following the lead of the governor and other officials in the state. So we’re not trying to push anything,” he said.
Carlberg said that when the TMT decided to locate the 18-story, next-generation telescope on Mauna Kea, officials knew there was going to be a new way of doing business, with greater stewardship and responsiveness to the community.
“We don’t want to be an unwelcome guest for 50 years. That doesn’t work for anybody,” he said.
As for the political challenges ahead for the $1.4 billion project, he said, “TMT itself is a scientific organization. We’re magnificently ill-suited for handling this sort of thing. But in the end the state needs to figure out how this is going to work and if it’s going to work.”
