How would you feel if foreigners planned to steal your land to
build an eighteen story, eight acre telescope on top of your place of
worship, burial sites, and water source?! The native re-awakening
occurring now on Hawaii may be the single greatest hope for Earth, all
her life and peoples. The #WeAreMaunaKea
protectors teach us that genocide and ecocide to look at the stars, or
carry out any industrial activity, is no longer culturally acceptable.
We must all join native peoples out of love standing up for the land,
and good-willed people of all races should be welcomed by native
defenders. A powerful global indigenist uprising that along with allies
ends industrial ecosystem destruction is Earth's last best chance for
sustainability and avoiding biosphere collapse and the end of being. We all depend upon sacred lands such as Mauna Kea for the environment within which we live.
By Dr. Glen Barry, EcoInternet
Long
prophesied by native thinkers, Earth is dying. The global ecological
system is collapsing under the weight of industrial development. More
ecosystems including the atmosphere have been lost and degraded than the
biosphere can bear. Concurrently perma-war, injustice, and inequity
have hit epidemic proportions and are worsening ecocide and obstructing
solutions.
While social movements of many types work on these
issues, the forces of ecocide are pernicious, resolute, and massive. To
date adoption of solutions including smaller families, leaving fossil
fuels in the ground, protecting and restoring natural ecosystems, and
transitioning our communities to bioregional sustainability have proven
orders of magnitudes inadequate to stop or even impede the surging
industrial growth machine's gorging upon native ecosystems and peoples.
We
got into this predicament as centuries ago ecological colonialism swept
from Northern Europe to wage ecocide on ecosystems and genocide upon
other non-European peoples. A deadly blend of capitalism, christianity,
and militarism sought to liquidate natural ecosystems for perfunctory
consumption by some; defended by rigid institutionalized racial, class,
and inequity divides.
Against such a desperate backdrop about the
only real hope for Earth and all her life that can be found is the
resurgence of indigenous thought and action such as that playing out in
Hawaii. There on the Big Island brave native defenders have taken a
dramatic stand against some of the most privileged seeking to steal
their sacred Mauna Kea mountain. In an unjust, inequitable, ecologically
collapsing world #WeAreMaunaKea
(one of the hashtags on Twitter used by the movement) offers a vision
of ecological sustainability and social harmony based upon Aloha 'Aina –
love of the land.
#WeAreMaunaKea
calls on the Moore Foundation and TMT Hawaii to voluntarily withdraw
plans to steal and desecrate native Hawaiian sacred land with an
industrial scale telescope. And they do so based upon love of the land
and community mobilization in a manner that is applicable to virtually
every environmental and social justice struggle. Following in the
Gandhian and Martin Luther King tradition of non-violence, their own
blend of Kapua Aloha (kindness, love, empathy) stresses bearing witness
to ecocide with their bodies, minds, souls, and voices; albeit with a
specific Hawaiian flare.
The Aloha 'Aina protectors demonstrate
the ecological Earth ethic needed for the human family and our one
shared biosphere to survive. A powerful global indigenist uprising that
along with allies ends industrial ecosystem destruction of the landbase
is Earth's last best chance to avoid global ecosystem collapse and
achieve global ecological sustainability.
MAUNA KEA
Mauna
Kea is a sacred mountain to native Hawaiians and is vital for pure
water on the Big Island. Measured from its base in the ocean, Mauna Kea
rises over 10,000 m (33,000 ft), significantly higher than Mount
Everest. Mauna Kea dramatically affects wind and weather patterns, and
its often snow-capped peaks collect water that feeds the aquifer for
Hawaii Island.
There Poli'ahu the Snow Goddess gathers, stores and
shares life giving wai (water). So sacred is Mauna Kea that access was
limited to only the most reverent of spiritual purposes. Land is sacred
to native Hawaiians, and their ancestors believed numerous gods and
goddesses inhabit Mauna Kea, and it continues to be revered as a temple.
This may appear to be superstitious to some, but it is the basis of a
worldview that protected vital ecosystems.
For Hawaiians Mauna Kea
is where the sky and earth separated to form the heavens and where the
mother and father of the Hawaiian race first met. Mauna Kea holds more
than 250 shrines and burial sites and in centuries past its summit was
so revered that only high chiefs and priests were allowed to ascend it.
The mountain inspires many traditional chants and songs.
There are already 13 telescopes
scarring the mountain; and the newest, called the Thirty-Meter
Telescope, would be 18-stories tall and destroy an additional eight
acres of land, and intensify human waste and toxics entering the
sensitive ecosystem. Mauna Kea Conservation District Lands are
watershed, historic, environmentally and culturally sensitive lands and
therefore have special protected status under Hawai'i law. The mountain
is home to endangered Hawaiian flora and fauna including the Hawaiian
silversword plant, the mamane tree, and the endangered finch-billed
species of Hawaiian honeycreeper that lives only on the upper slopes of
Mauna Kea.
Sacred lands such as Mauna Kea offer some of Earth's
last intact ecosystems and biodiversity required to sustain humanity and
the biosphere. While indigenous peoples account for 4% of global
population, occupying 22% of land, their ancestral lands hold 80% of
remaining biodiversity. The TMT telescope being built against the wishes
of native Hawaiians is neo-colonialism, water and land ecocide, and
continues the process of turning sacred Mauna Kea into a poorly managed
industrial park. Such is the history of the end of the world.
The Protectors
For months protestors have camped out on the top of the mountain
creating human blockades, there have been dozens of arrests, as well as
numerous affinity protests nationally and across social media including
on Twitter at #WeAreMaunaKea. Those on the mountain emphasize that they
are protectors not protestors. Yet for 95 days and counting
#WeAreMaunaKea has kept the forces of ecocide and cultural genocide from
stealing and fencing Mauna Kea’s summit.
#WeAreMaunaKea
tactics have been exquisite. For months small groups have camped on
their sacred mountain ready to block reconstruction, as small groups of
average citizens protested street side across the island, building
strong public affinity (my wife and I partook once and it was lovely).
Native rock ahu alters were built on Mauna Kea in anticipation of
renewed efforts to steal sacred lands. Last week after the moratorium on
TMT construction had ended, lines of protectors mobilized as
construction loomed, one by one getting arrested, as the access road was
blocked by boulders strewn to impede access. Meanwhile native
protestors and allies sang, danced and expressed love, while many others
posted photos and tweeted to build global affinity.
#WeAreMaunaKea continues to demonstrate to the entire world the power
of Hawaiian Aloha ‘Aina (love of land) and Kapu Aloha (kindness, love,
empathy). Yet at the same time TMT and bought government enforcers have
learned quickly to not confuse native Hawaiian’s Aloha with weakness and
lack of resolve.
Despite the forces of large ecocide and cultural genocide continually
seeking to break native Hawaiian blockade to steal and fence Mauna Kea,
for months the movement has grown and strengthened. Native Hawaiians
and affinity protestors have drawn a line: no more ecocide and rights
abuses on Mauna Kea. In so doing they have set an example for the world
of how communities can demand control over their destiny and ecosystems.
The native Hawaiian #WeAreMaunaKea movement is demonstrating the path
to global justice and ecological sustainability lies through entire
communities swarming industrial debasement of sacred natural ecosystems
and based upon Aloha ‘Aina and Kapu Aloha defeating such transgressions.
When asked who blocked the road, the entire community roars back I
have. This is how ecocide will end globally and sanity return to the
human spirit embedded forever in the land.
Native Hawaiians protecting sacred Mauna Kea refuse to accept more
occupation, land theft, rights abuses, and ecosystem loss. Similar
native movements are occurring globally as indigenous peoples mobilize,
and it is something that even settlers by birth must embrace to become
re-landed in their own sacred ecosystems. Aloha ‘Aina is all about fully
occupying and protecting the sacred land upon which we all depend
locally and globally for a liveable Earth.
Most amazing though is that #WeAreMaunaKea – like all great leaps of
human consciousness – is arising organically, without central leadership
or coordination. Soon all over the world one can envision “Indian”
native peoples and allies rising up to defeat “Cowboy” settlers
restoring Earth and humanity. Native Hawaiians never consented to sacred
Mauna Kea being occupied and destroyed by colonizing astronomy
settlers.
TMT
The $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), to be 18 stories tall
and the second biggest telescope in the world, would be built in the
Mauna Kea Conservation District on the Big Island of Hawaii. TMT’s
insistence that they will occupy and further desecrate the summit of
Mauna Kea despite the heartfelt cries of an entire people is a shameful
display of cultural imperialism.
Far from a “clean science,” astronomical projects bring many
environmental problems. On Mauna Kea, once untrammeled by humans,
thousands of astronomers per year now drive to its summit. They leave
behind some 500,000 gallons of human waste annually and introduce toxic
chemicals such as ethylene glycol and liquid mercury into the fragile
environment. Construction has damaged and leveled the peaks, spewing
dust and facilitating human intrusion that is wreaking havoc on this
fragile ecosystem.
TMT science on sacred Mauna Kea is a crude expression of white
privilege, theft, oppression, and renewed occupation of native Hawaiian
land and represents continuation of the age of ecocide, waged under the
banner of rationality since European colonialism commenced. In this day
and age it is unconscionable that racist land thefts and desecration of
native lands continue in the name of “science”.
Perhaps no one is more complicit in continued raping of the Hawaiian
race and their land than Gordon Moore of Intel fame and fortune. His
Moore Foundation have pledged a quarter of a billion dollars to the
venture, continuing the long history of Western businessmen oppressing
native Hawaiians (including those which overthrew the kingdom leading to
present day occupation). We expect such things from the Canadian
government and other funders of Mauna Kea’s occupation, but it is
particularly vicious and reprehensible coming from a man that purports
to be visionary and support the environment.
Recently the Hawaiian Supreme Court agreed to rule on the merits of
native claims that industrial astronomy is not a valid land use for
state conservation lands. Almost immediately following the announcement,
TMT Hawaii and the Moore Foundation sought to immediately rush to the
top of Mauna Kea’s summit, breaking the peaceful native blockade, to
seize and fence the contested land.
Why won’t TMT proponents wait until the coming Hawaiian Supreme Court
ruling on telescope before building? What are they afraid of, and are
they aware of some illegality in their actions? We hope TMT Hawaii and
collaborators are misguided and not evil, yet regardless #WeAreMaunaKea
won’t allow more theft and desecration.
TMT science astronomers and their billionaire paymasters are at this
very moment scheming to forcibly break native Hawaiian blockade to steal
sacred Mauna Kea. And we need your help to stop them – please start by
participating in EcoInternet’s action alert: Demand Those Building TMT Telescope on Hawaiian Sacred Mauna Kea Voluntarily Withdraw.
Astronomers have no innate right to steal Mauna Kea from native
Hawaiians. There actions do indeed constitute cultural genocide, which
is waged not only with murder, but also by stealing and destroying
sacred sites causing despair, social disharmony, and collapse of
indigenous ways of being.
When will Intel money flowing through the Moore Foundation and the
University of Hawaii stop funding ecocide and genocide being waged upon
Hawaii’s native peoples and lands?
Gordon Moore’s misbehavior demonstrates further the horrors of
inequity whereby 200 people have half of Earth’s wealth and one billion
live on less than $1.50/day, something which is evil incarnate and will
kill us all. Billionaires don’t simply get their way all the time, and
are not able to destroy all they want by virtue of great wealth. With
great wealth comes even greater responsibility to share and protect.
Learning with Indigenous Peoples
#WeAreMaunaKea sends forth a hopeful message of global Aloha ‘Aina –
protect and restore land or face biosphere collapse. From Hawaii right
around the world – including in Wisconsin and Papua New Guinea where I
have recently helped successful native efforts to protect their land –
Indigenous peoples lead the way to a sustainable future.
Be clear, native owners of sacred Mauna Kea have not approved its
desecration by TMT and they are the only ones that matter. Modern humans
destroy ecosystems upon which life depends, native people lead us back,
seeking to protect and restore the ancestral garden.
Again, we know that ending fossil fuels and permawar, protecting
natural ecosystems and having fewer kids as we share more are necessary
to avoid biosphere collapse. But perhaps no single action is more needed
to achieve global ecological sustainability than fostering a love and
deep devotion to the land.
Globally native peoples are taking back their lands, resisting
ecocide, and are leading the way to ecological sustainability. I’m a
haole
(a white person in Hawaiian), so choose to listen or not. Yet I am
married to a Papua New Guinean, have spent many years living in that
Pacific Island’s villages, and have spent 2 1/2 decades advocating for
indigenous rights and the environment. My life has been lived out of
devotion and love of the land.
This I know: In matters of land theft, ecocide, and cultural genocide
there can be no common ground. We have to each choose a side. And once
chosen, embrace and be embraced. The #WeAreMaunaKea movement faces some
obstacles as with its native emphasis by definition it is insular and
not particularly welcoming to other races. Yet Hawaiians and Pacific
Islanders constitute only 10% of Hawaii’s population. To be successful
indigenous movements such as #WeAreMaunaKea need to build bridges to
those from all communities that share Aloha ‘Aina and reject further
settlement of native lands.
Native peoples should reach out and embrace non-Hawaiians attending
their events. While understanding the profound abuses heaped
historically on native Hawaiians, it is crucial they stop judging people
by race and instead judge them by their actions. You simply can’t do it
by yourself, you need allies. Practice aloha towards those of other
races reaching out to you in support of love of the land and Mauna Kea.
Together #WeAreAllMaunaKea.
I
also know that chances to reassert native sovereignty don’t come along
often or easily. Given this once in a lifetime chance, it is essential
that #WeAreMaunaKea continue in pursuit of total #TMTShutdown. To do so
we need a constant stream of social media from the mountain to global
supporters to build global affinity. Whatever shall befall Mauna Kea and
its protectors, it shall not be in anonymity.
It is well past time for the human family to come together to
overcome historical wrongs as work together for global justice, equity
and ecological sustainability. We must nurture a profound love of the
land even as we end fossil fuels and protect and restore natural
ecosystems.
#WeAreMaunaKea calls for an immediate permanent #TMTShutdown to
protect native rights, sacred land, and Big Islands’ water. Today and
everyday #WeAreMaunaKea reiterate to the Moore Foundation and TMT Hawaii
that the TMT telescope will never be built on our stolen land. Sadly a
tourism boycott of Hawaii may be necessary if authorities continue
abetting the persecution of native Hawaiians.
All Earth’s people are called to rally to #WeAreMaunaKea’s just and
sustainable plea, and to express their love of Mauna Kea and all sacred
land. Only then can one human family live forever with a sacred Earth.
