To: Harry Kim, Mayor of Hawaii County, Dr. David Lassner, President of the Univ. of Hawaii, The Hawaii State House, The Hawaii State Senate, and Governor David Ige
It’s Time to Listen: Native Hawaiian Protectors Have More to Teach Us About Our Relationship wit...
Nonviolent Native Hawaiian Protectors here on our Big Island of Hawai’i are, as you read these words, taking a civilly disobedient stand to block construction of an 18-story telescope atop their most sacred mountain, Mauna Kea. Dozens of peaceful Protectors have been arrested since mid-July 2019. Yet this act of nonviolent protest is not about sacred Mauna Kea and the Hawaiian people alone: it is about of humanity, and our relationship with Mother Nature. It is time for we humans to awaken and show respect for our lands, our waters, our air, our trees, our mountains, our animals. Let us listen to the indigenous peoples of the Earth as never before, and grant that they have attunement with Mother Nature from which we can learn. Our future existence as humankind may depend upon exactly this. We are at a crucial choice-point, and Mauna Kea is among its latest fronts. Please affirm your support of indigenous Protectors in Hawai'i and around the world.
Why is this important?
Background:
Many traditional Hawaiians honor Mauna Kea (“White Mountain”) on the Big Island of Hawai’i as the holiest of ancient Hawaiian sacred sites, some say in all of Polynesia, the literal meeting place of earth and heaven in Hawaiian cosmology and home of the gods. Native Hawaiian Protectors of Mauna Kea have been encamped at the base of their mountain temple for months, engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience, prayer, hula, chant, song, and other spiritual rituals. The Hawaiian elders are doing what they peacefully can to prevent construction of an 18-story thirty-meter telescope (TMT) atop their sacred Mauna Kea, ascending to 32,696 feet from its Hilo flank on the ocean floor, the tallest mountain on Earth.
The Hawaiian encampment is intended to obstruct construction equipment (but not astronomers who work at existing observatories on the mountain). Thirteen telescopes already sit atop Mauna Kea, but that degree of space-sharing has not sufficed, and next-generation technology is now decreed, with a construction budget of 1.4 billion dollars. Dozens of kapuna (Hawaiian elders) who have nonviolently protested new construction have been arrested.
The Hawaiian people have historically been dominated and mistreated, symbolized by the decimation of 90 percent of the native Hawaiian population by post-contact Western diseases, the banning of the hula and the speaking of the Hawaiian language, the armed overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by Western businessmen, the early imposition of voting restrictions on Hawaiians, sacred Hawaiian islands sites being used for military bombing practice, and military tank training and war games held at the base of Mauna Kea to this day.
Related scenarios have been imposed repeatedly on Native American Indians, Alaskan Eskimos, Brazilian Indian tribes, Australian Aborigines, and other cultural groups. Presumed racial superiority and cultural insensitivity prevail as those in power unceasingly exert their will. For the past 150 years, mankind has mercilessly contaminated and destroyed so much of Mother Nature, and dismissed, mocked, and subjugated the indigenous peoples who have lived in harmony with her for millennia, and are crying out in her behalf. Our planet and her peoples are at serious risk: our sciences tell us this, and the stark evidence faces us daily. These are not “normal” times, and it should no longer be “Business as Usual: Full Speed Ahead!”
We have plugged our ears to indigenous peoples for far too long as “Progress” has been given unbridled go-ahead. We no longer hear Mother Nature speak, and she needs native peoples’ voices, chants, dances, songs, stories for her communication with humankind. We need to restore sacred relationship and respectful connection with our Mother Nature. Before it is irreparably late, may we slow down, respectfully listen, and learn.
Please sign this petition to show support for Native Hawaiian Protectors and their allies, for Hawaii’s Governor, and Hilo’s Mayor who are currently encouraging police restraint, and for the future of humanity.
Many traditional Hawaiians honor Mauna Kea (“White Mountain”) on the Big Island of Hawai’i as the holiest of ancient Hawaiian sacred sites, some say in all of Polynesia, the literal meeting place of earth and heaven in Hawaiian cosmology and home of the gods. Native Hawaiian Protectors of Mauna Kea have been encamped at the base of their mountain temple for months, engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience, prayer, hula, chant, song, and other spiritual rituals. The Hawaiian elders are doing what they peacefully can to prevent construction of an 18-story thirty-meter telescope (TMT) atop their sacred Mauna Kea, ascending to 32,696 feet from its Hilo flank on the ocean floor, the tallest mountain on Earth.
The Hawaiian encampment is intended to obstruct construction equipment (but not astronomers who work at existing observatories on the mountain). Thirteen telescopes already sit atop Mauna Kea, but that degree of space-sharing has not sufficed, and next-generation technology is now decreed, with a construction budget of 1.4 billion dollars. Dozens of kapuna (Hawaiian elders) who have nonviolently protested new construction have been arrested.
The Hawaiian people have historically been dominated and mistreated, symbolized by the decimation of 90 percent of the native Hawaiian population by post-contact Western diseases, the banning of the hula and the speaking of the Hawaiian language, the armed overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by Western businessmen, the early imposition of voting restrictions on Hawaiians, sacred Hawaiian islands sites being used for military bombing practice, and military tank training and war games held at the base of Mauna Kea to this day.
Related scenarios have been imposed repeatedly on Native American Indians, Alaskan Eskimos, Brazilian Indian tribes, Australian Aborigines, and other cultural groups. Presumed racial superiority and cultural insensitivity prevail as those in power unceasingly exert their will. For the past 150 years, mankind has mercilessly contaminated and destroyed so much of Mother Nature, and dismissed, mocked, and subjugated the indigenous peoples who have lived in harmony with her for millennia, and are crying out in her behalf. Our planet and her peoples are at serious risk: our sciences tell us this, and the stark evidence faces us daily. These are not “normal” times, and it should no longer be “Business as Usual: Full Speed Ahead!”
We have plugged our ears to indigenous peoples for far too long as “Progress” has been given unbridled go-ahead. We no longer hear Mother Nature speak, and she needs native peoples’ voices, chants, dances, songs, stories for her communication with humankind. We need to restore sacred relationship and respectful connection with our Mother Nature. Before it is irreparably late, may we slow down, respectfully listen, and learn.
Please sign this petition to show support for Native Hawaiian Protectors and their allies, for Hawaii’s Governor, and Hilo’s Mayor who are currently encouraging police restraint, and for the future of humanity.