Hundreds of students walked out of classes at University of Hawaii campuses around the state Monday in a show of support for those protesting the Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea.
The noon walkout of students and faculty of Native Hawaiian-serving programs was called by the Puko‘a Council, the Native Hawaiian council of UH faculty and staff members that advises UH President David Lassner.
The council Monday declared its opposition to the $1.4 billion TMT project and launched a campaign to persuade the partners of the nonprofit TMT Corp. to divest from the project to build one of the world’s largest and most powerful telescopes on land subleased by UH.
"We’re going to do everything in our power to bring pressure on them and their partners to stop this building," Hawaiian-studies professor Jon Osorio told a few hundred students at a rally at the UH-Manoa Campus Center Courtyard. "We are not going to stop until this project is brought to a halt."
A letter signed by nearly 200 Hawaii professors, academics and Native Hawaiian leaders urges officials from universities and scientific institutions in California, Canada, India, Japan and China to cut their financial ties to the project while expressing deep concern with "the irreparable damage" the telescope would have on "our communities, cultures, collective futures, and sacred Mauna Kea."
In another move announced Monday, Puko‘a Council Administrator Keali‘i‘olu‘olu Gora said he would be taking the issue to a United Nations Conference of Indigenous Peoples next week in an effort to gain additional support and put more pressure on the developers of the project.
Hawaiian-studies professor Lilikala Kame‘eleihiwa, an Oahu representative on the council, said the panel last week formally asked Lassner and, by extension, the UH Board of Regents, to stop the TMT project.
"The Board of Regents or the Office of Mauna Kea Management can no longer speak on behalf of the entire University for this issue," Kame‘eleihiwa said in a statement. "As we’ve seen in the past week, opposition to this issue is widespread and this includes opposition within the university itself. The Board of Regents needs to know this, as do the TMT investors."
In a statement presented to Lassner on Wednesday, the council said UH must uphold its commitment to being a Hawaiian place of learning.
"In order to fulfill that commitment, it is necessary for the university to make decisions that respect and perpetuate Native Hawaiian cultural values. The University of Hawaii is the steward of Mauna Kea and the construction of the TMT represents extreme disrespect and devaluation of Hawaiians; this is unacceptable," the statement said.
UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said in response, "We want everyone to know that all voices are being heard and that UH is working diligently with all of its stakeholders to find the best path forward."
Earlier Monday attorney Doug Ing of Watanabe Ing LLC issued the following statement on behalf of TMT Corp. in response to comments made by the Puko‘a Council in advance of Monday’s walk-out at UH:
"We fully expect the appeals court to uphold Judge (Greg) Nakamura’s previous ruling that TMT is consistent with the purpose of the Conservation District Use Permit at the Mauna Kea Science Reserve. Additionally, we are confident that the courts will also rule in favor of TMT in any appeal of the Board of Land and Natural Resources’ consent to the sublease. All court decisions made support TMT’s full compliance in order to proceed with construction."
During Monday’s rally at Manoa, students listened to speeches and made anti-TMT signs and T-shirts, and signed petitions calling for a halt to construction.
While addressing the students, Kame‘eleihiwa called the planned 180-foot-tall observatory a desecration to a sacred mountain.
She pointed out that the voyaging canoe Hokule‘a sailed to Tahiti in 16 days with only the stars to guide its crew.
"This is science," she said of the achievement. "They didn’t need a gadget on top of the mountain. We use our eyes. We use our minds. We use our ancestral wisdom. We don’t need to have another observatory and waste money."
According to the 12-page letter to the TMT partners, the project has met with "tremendous public opposition" and has resulted in the arrest of 31 "protectors" of the mountain, which, it says, is "a product of UH/TMT’s disrespect for public processes, the courts, and especially Mauna Kea’s protectors."
The letter says the summit of Mauna Kea is composed of Hawaiian kingdom national lands that are unlawfully controlled by the U.S. after the illegal overthrow of the kingdom and held in trust by the state. The TMT development, it says, would only further complicate claims of the Hawaiian nation to its inherent land base.
"By divesting now, you support efforts towards a lasting reconciliation between the many communities connected to Mauna Kea," the letter says.
The TMT project underwent a seven-year environmental review that featured more than 20 public hearings and a formal contested-case proceeding. Gov. David Ige announced a delay of construction until at least Monday.
