The University of Hawaii’s singular push to erect as many telescopes as possible on the summit has unnecessarily fractured our tight-knit local community. There never had to be this controversy. Native Hawaiians and astronomers didn’t have to be pitted against each other. More importantly, the kiai who were compelled to protect the mauna never had to be arrested.
It should have never reached this point.
It’s not just that UH has ignored community concerns. UH acted like we never said anything all these years. Like the opposition never existed.
So let’s take a quick trip through history. Hawaii island residents have been expressing concerns about overdevelopment of the mountain dating back to the 1970s.
In 1974, Volcano environmentalist Mae Mull called the proposal to add three new telescopes on the mountain to the three already there a “desecration” that would “permanently scar Mauna Kea.”
Herbert Matayoshi, the Hawaii County mayor from 1974 to 1984, was a famously staunch opponent of telescope development. He derisively referred to the observatories as “pimples” and led community attempts to cap telescope development at six in the first masterplanning process for the mauna.
Scores of Hawaii island locals in the 1970s and 1980s, especially from the hunting and Native Hawaiian communities, lamented the continued development of the mauna, from the telescopes to the mid-level facilities to the paved road. “No more building,” members of the Waimea Hawaiian Civic Club told the Hawaii Tribune Herald in 1980. “The mountain should not be ‘over crowded’; it may bring more cars, and outsiders who do not have good ‘mana‘o’ (thoughts) about preserving the valuable history of the mountain.”
But all these voices fell on UH’s deaf ears, with school officials too busy staring at the stars to listen to their community around them.
UH says it will do better. It says that this time it will listen to those voices. UH has repeatedly said that the 1998 state audit that was highly critical of its management was a wake-up call. Well, let’s look at its management record for improvements since then.
The 1998 audit pointed out that nearly half the telescopes were built in violation of the law. UH failed to submit conservation permit applications for the first three telescopes, only realizing the oversight six years after construction was finished. In 1997, UH requested after-the-fact subleases for four telescopes already under construction. Permits and subleases are the most important tools UH as the general lessee would use to ensure proper management of the mountain. UH instead treated them as an afterthought.
But UH has changed, right? Nope.
In 2015, the Hawaii Supreme Court said that the Board of Land and Natural Resources improperly approved the Thirty Meter Telescope’s permit, which UH submitted.
The bottom line is that UH cannot be trusted. It’s proven that time and again. At the end of the day, UH is an educational institution. Astronomy research will always bias its management of the mauna. It should not be a regulatory body, ensuring that it meets its own rules and regulations.
It’s time to remove UH as manager of the summit area of Mauna Kea, so community voices can finally be heard, so we can start repairing relationships in our tight-knit community, and so we can restore balance to the mauna.
Over the next few weeks, the state Senate will be considering a bill that strips UH of its management kuleana for the mauna. There is a lot of work ahead to build the new management authority, but it represents a huge step forward for our Hawaii island community and, most importantly, for Mauna a Wakea.
Dr. Noe Noe Wong-Wilson is an educator, cultural practitioner and Native Hawaiian rights activist; Dan Ahuna is an educator and Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee representing Kauai and Niihau.
