HILO » The Thirty Meter Telescope took a mighty verbal beat-down Thursday at a special meeting of the University of Hawaii Board of Regents.
Hundreds of mostly Native Hawaiians joined hands at UH-Hilo to raise a chorus of opposition before a panel whose members largely weren’t in their positions when the $1.4 billion project was approved in 2010 on land subleased by the university.
Speakers shed tears, sang songs, played instruments and lashed out angrily at the university for what they called a failed and deplorable history of stewardship on top of Mauna Kea.
The TMT, expected to be the largest and most powerful of the community of telescopes on the mountain when it becomes operational in 2024, was condemned for how it would disrupt the high-elevation environment and desecrate an extraordinarily sacred place.
Many invoked the illegal occupation of Hawaii by the U.S. and the injustices of the past. Some said the international community was beginning to acknowledge these wrongs, and the regents were warned that, by their actions, they may be participating in war crimes.
Speaker after speaker heaped praise on the young "protectors" who are standing guard on the mountain, ready to block the telescope’s construction crews. They were described as heroes to the Hawaiian nation.
"What the young people are doing today should not be a surprise," said Mauna Kea Hui leader Kealoha Pisciotta during emotional testimony that recounted the battles she has fought over the past decade and a half.
Leilani Lindsey-Kaapuni was among the many testifiers who urged the regents to reconsider allowing the TMT, which at 180 feet is expected to be the largest building on Hawaii island.
"If you do not, you leave us no recourse but to stand in the road, and hundreds will do it with us," she said to loud applause.
Lindsey-Kaapuni, executive assistant at the Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo, added, "This is not a protest. This is an awakening."
It’s uncertain whether the regents can even stop the TMT now that the project has its state permits following a seven-year public review process.
But board Chairman Randy Moore offered that "this is only the beginning of a long conversation."
Construction of the telescope is on hold after Gov. David Ige announced a "timeout" that the TMT Corp. agreed to extend until Monday.
Thursday’s special meeting was scheduled following the board’s regularly scheduled Hilo meeting to give the new regents a chance to learn about the university’s management of Mauna Kea and the Mauna Kea Science Reserve.
But with more than 120 people signed up to give testimony, it was decided to postpone a review of the project until a later date and launch immediately into testimony. Even with that, many testifiers were shut out because some of the regents needed to catch a plane to attend a conference on the mainland.
University officials had moved the meeting to the largest classroom on campus — capacity 150 — but it still couldn’t hold a crowd of perhaps 400.
The massive TMT telescope took its first dent even before the meeting started when it was announced that written testimony came in at 1,010 against and only 28 in support.
And only one person offered verbal testimony in favor: UH astronomy professor Mark Chun, who sang the praises of Mauna Kea, its unmatched conditions for astronomy and its importance to the state of Hawaii.
"We can choose to disengage, or we can choose to lead the world," he declared.
But many replied that Hawaiians are not against astronomy or science in general. Rather, they are against the location, which, they said, is considered the most sacred place in the islands.
Manoa colleague Kalani Makekau-Whit­taker, a Hawaiian-studies professor, said he, like many others, is a practitioner of the ancient Hawaiian religion that holds Mauna Kea in highest regard.
"Science and money do not supersede the sanctity of our mountain," he said.
Makekau-Whittaker said Hawaiians and their beliefs have been unfairly treated in the formal review processes for telescopes for decades, and they are finished accommodating the needs of the astronomers.
"We are extremely tired of compromising," he said. "We are exhausted. We are not going to compromise anymore. Pau already."
Kamenaha Kealoha, a UH-Manoa student from Hawaii island, said a university that claims to be "a Hawaiian place of learning" cannot be the agent for erasing Hawaiian culture.
"Astronomy is not the only school of knowledge. Hawaii should also support Hawaiian-studies knowledge," he said.
