Mauna Kea: Oppression and Colonialism
A Gross Violation of Constitutional Rights of Natives
This happened during a peaceful protest that was staged by the Native Hawaiians-the word Native is of great importance here-against the construction of TMT, Thirty Meter Telescope.
There are several things at play here, let me break it down for the reader who is not up to date.
Mauna Kea is a site of religious significance to the Natives. The mountain has hundreds of shrines dating back before occupation and statehood. The belief among Natives is that sacred spirits and gods reside at the apex. The mountain is revered. (If you’re Hindu/Buddhist/Jain, think Mt Kailash.)
At least 263 archaeologically significant sites have been identified at the summit alone.
Several sites of historic and great cultural value like Lake Wai’au and Pu’u Huluhulu are located on the mountain.
Mauna Kea is considered a temple and site of pilgrimage by the Natives.
The TMT observatory, which will be eighteen stories high and as such the tallest building on the island, will have an external radius of 108 ft and a dome shutter 102.5 feet in diameter.
The proposed site is at the northern plateau of the mountain. The site is one of the last undisturbed places on Mauna Kea. There are already twelve other observatories housing thirteen telescopes.
The TMT observatory will produce large amounts of waste, solid and liquid, and noise pollution among other effects. The full report can be found here.
In the event of construction, several shrines and cinder cones-burial sites-will be desecrated.
Native Hawaiian practices will perish as a direct result.
On June 20 this year Gov Ige, in a press release, announced that the state had issued a notice to proceed with the construction of TMT.
In the press release, Attorney General Clare E Connors admitted the State intends to insure the construction of the observatory to further astronomical discovery.
On July 10, 2019, Gov Ige along with TMT International Observatory, announced the TMT would begin construction the following week.
On morning of July 15, 2019 law enforcement officers ‘swept’ Mauna Kea of all members of the public and prohibited all members of the public, including Native Hawaiians wishing to conduct traditional and customary practices, access to Mauna Kea via Mauna Kea Access Road and Mana Road, public right of ways.
(The lawsuit can be found here for those who would like to peruse in detail.)
The Native Hawaiians, exercising their constitutionally protected rights of free speech and assembly, began to stage a peaceful protest against the construction. A project which is in gross violation of the Constitution (First Amendment) and seeks to oppress the Natives and appropriate the land for propaganda.
Gov. Ige declared an ‘emergency’ and called in the National Guard to aid ‘law enforcement' in removal of the Natives’ who were protesting. The ‘emergency’, which has no roots in reality as there is no natural disaster or bona fide crises, is a gross abuse of his authority.
He, like all tyrannical leaders before him, has attempted to pin the blame for the ‘emergency’ on Natives, saying that they were using drugs and alcohol on site and had failed to uphold the sanctity of refuge.
He has also stated that he has no plans of revoking the emergency.
These are photos taken within the last few days from the site of protest.
Such abuse of power should be intolerable in a country that prides itself on upholding it’s values.
Where do these values go when its time to put them to the test?
This ‘emergency’ was enforced by Gov. Ige to subvert the constitutionally protected rights of Native Hawaiians under First Amendment.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
These are the exact words of the First Amendment. The TMT Proclamation is in direct violation of this. Gov. Ige’s actions-including false claims by him of usage of drugs and alcohol at the pu’uhonua (refuge) to issue a state of ‘emergency’-are in direct and verifiable violation of the First Amendment.
The Constitution is not a toy, Gov. Ige.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard had this to say.
To many Native Hawaiians, kamaʻāina, and malihini alike, Mauna Kea is so much more than a mountain. It’s a revered and sacred sanctuary connecting keiki and kupuna to the past, present and future, and where Native Hawaiians practice their customs and traditions.
Their customs and traditions are being held hostage as we speak against the First Amendment and Article XII Section 7 of State Constitution of Hawaii, among other such laws that protect religious freedom.
An excerpt from the open letter signed by over 600 astronomers:
We want to echo the work of Indigenous scholars and communities in pointing out how US-based histories of conquest have been exploitative and destructive to Indigenous ways of knowing (science) and being (cosmology) in the continental US and in the Hawaiian context. These histories progressed in lock-step with the development of western “sciences” of personhood: of who and/or what is human, and therefore who must be subhuman, and thus must be subject to control via mechanisms of policing, incarceration, and military violence. As Hawaiian scientist Aurora Kagawa-Viviani writes, “To me, practices of science in its present form smell a lot like the American Manifest Destiny associated with terrible loss for so many indigenous communities.”
We evoke this history because we recognize that the events surrounding TMT occur within a context of US-based injustice in this particular historical moment, including but not limited to the ongoing disproportionate policing and incarceration of members of Indigenous, Black, and brown communities in the US, and the detention of refugee migrants in concentration camps at the US border. To be explicit: institutions of policing, incarceration and militarization have a long history of being used to harm marginalized, racialized communities in this country.
Native Hawaiians have repeatedly stated that their objection was with land use and not science. They are vehemently opposed to this infringement on their sacred land. Their voices go unheard.
The only reason this issue has reached this point is because they are a religious minority.
Why, despite having a perfectly acceptable alternative sight in La Palma, Canary Islands (SP.), does this continued violence seem warranted to people in power?
This state of emergency will allow the law enforcement to infringe on the protected rights of the Native Hawaiians, including removals by force.
Bullying is too small a word, too limited in its scope to encompass this systemic, racial and theocratic violence against the Natives.
There is a word for this usage of excessive power by governments to silence the minorities in order to steal from them.
Tyranny.
It is tyrannical to demolish a site of such religious significance for an observatory that can be erected at another site just as easily and without stepping on the fundamental, constitutional rights of the Natives.
This is a prime example of colonization and attempts to eradicate the indigenous culture and practices and relegate them to history books.
There are already twelve facilities housing a total of thirteen telescopes on Mauna Kea. The TMT can take it’s business to La Palma. This trespass upon Native Hawaiian rights is not justifiable. This would never be allowed on a sight of Abrahamic significance in the United States or anywhere else in Abrahamic majority nations.
This is a transparent attempt to appropriate the land that belongs to Native Hawaiians for propaganda.
If the telescope is built, it would involve the desecration of numerous shrines and burial sites.
In effect, this is people in power saying that the Natives are only human, with all the integrity afforded to an individual labelled such, until the time when the administration can profit off of their land. Then they cease to be human and if they don’t cede their land than it will be snatched from them by force.
There is such a thing as going too far.
Mauna Kea has already given more than it’s fair share, and against the express desires of people for whom it is no less than a religious monument.
Eliminating us. A people, which are constitutionally protected, should never have this sentiment. A people who are constitutionally protected would never have this sentiment.
The statement is based in absolute fact as this report by Peter Adler, a consultant and sociologist who was hired by The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to examine the effects of erecting TMT, verifies.
Lanakila Mangauil, a teacher of Hula and Hawaiian culture, in an interview said that he had nothing against science but he did not want the TMT on the mountain.
“Our connection to the mountain is like, that’s our elder, the mother of our resources. We’re talking about the wau akua, the realm of where the gods live.”
Lieutenant Gov. Josh Green had this to say:
First and most important in my opinion, there must not be any violence on Mauna Kea. That would cause irreparable damage to our state and people, culturally and spiritually. I want to recognize the Protectors right now for their peaceful approach to date. I have enormous respect for that. This is also why I have stated in the past my opposition to using the National Guard on Mauna Kea for TMT matters. I trust and respect the National Guard, however my belief is they should only be used when there is no other way to protect life and safety.
In my opinion no single project, not any, is important enough to allow ourselves to damage the fabric of our Ohana in Hawaii.
I believe that this struggle is more about the heart of Hawaii and our sense of self and dignity, especially for the Hawaiian people, than it is about a telescope. It is about cultural recognition and people’s self worth.
Cultural recognition and people’s sense of self worth. Hawaiians have taken blow after blow. First with the effects of colonization of the lands that belong to them. Then with the ban on their language, their history made a laughingstock at the behest of colonizers. The controversial annexation of Hawaii and yet more.
The elders are adamant. This time, they will not move.
It is their land. The land of their ancestors. The land they pay homage to and revere as the home of spirits.
In spite of the fact that there could be alternative sites, they go through this pain.
Astronomers have been investigating alternative sites in Mexico, Chile, India, China and the Canary Islands for TMT for years. Let them put the TMT on one such site.
Why the Natives have been put through so much despite the fact that potential alternatives exist, the foremost being in La Palma, is beyond me.
Why the Natives are continually oppressed just to fulfill an agenda and put names on a building is beyond me.
Why this colonialism has gone unchecked for so many years is beyond me.
Why, despite the fact that these protests were peaceful, a state of emergency was declared is beyond me.
Why this tyranny is going unquestioned is beyond me.
Why the blatant abuse of power by Gov Ige is uncontested is beyond me.
Why, despite the factual data to support the arguments that TMT will cause irreparable harm to not just Native Hawaiian practices but also the ecology, the state approved it’s construction is beyond me.
At this point, this has become an obvious kick to the proverbial gut of the Natives. This is their state saying, you don’t matter and your culture and religion don’t matter. This is their elected officials, people who are supposed to protect their interests, shrugging and going what can we do? We’re bound by law.
This whole approval, in spite of the governor’s-one assumes-knowledge of the First Amendment is the administration saying, we have the power. We do what we want. This is a disregard of the Constitution of United States and the Constitution of Hawaii.
In spite of the Natives reverence for the mountain and it’s obvious religious, cultural, historical, ceremonial and traditional value to them, this project was passed.
We have been very patient with all those on Mauna Kea, but we will continue to enforce the law.
These are the words of Gov. Ige.
What law does he speak of here?
Where is the law that says that the First Amendment is only applicable to certain sects?
Where is the law that says people can be arrested for exercising their rights?
The protesters are breaking the law and the state is obligated to ensure construction equipment for the telescope can get to the summit.
Even though law enforcement has done everything it can to talk and reason with protesters, the protesters continue to break the law.
More words from the esteemed Gov. Ige.
The only person who is breaking the law is you, Gov. Ige.
You’re breaking the law by disrespecting the Constitution.
The state is obligated to ensure that the constitution is upheld before any other duty, that is what you’re supposed to do.
In fact here, I’ll quote one of your state’s laws-nay, your duties-for you.
Under Article XII Section 7 of the State Constitution, the State has an affirmative duty to protect all rights, customarily and traditionally exercised for subsistence, cultural and religious purposes by Native Hawaiians.
Is that enough reason for you to start doing your actual job? Or should I start quoting Ka Pa’akai O Ka ‘Aina v Land Use Comm’n?
Gov. Ige has the nerve to say that Natives are violating the laws when he himself is in such indisputable violation of them. The TMT Proclamation is a a big fuck-you not just to the Hawaiian people, but also to the Constitution.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Ige.
The petition to stop the TMT project can be signed here.
You can donate to the Hawaii Community Bail Fund here.
I am not Hawaiian but I stand with them in solidarity.
Let’s give them hell.
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