by Leslie Lang, blog editor
Richard asked me to share this article here:
The search for knowledge on the summit of Mauna Kea is a sacred mission, by Chad Kalepa Baybayan.
This article just ran in West Hawaii Today, and Richard called it an “eloquent argument for common sense and practicality.”
Usually what I do here is reprint the first paragraph or so, and then affix a link so you can click over to read the rest.
But I found it amazingly difficult to excerpt this opinion article. It’s necessary so that we don’t impinge on the copyright, but it’s such a powerful article, every line of it, that it was truly hard to try to select just a bit of it.
So instead, here are a few thoughts pulled from different parts of the article that I hope will encourage you to go and read the whole thing.
“As explorers, Hawaiians utilized island resources to sustain their communities….They ventured to Mauna Kea, reshaped the environment by quarrying rock, left behind evidence of their work, and took materials off the mountain to serve their communities, with the full consent and in the presence of their gods.”
“I firmly believe the highest level of desecration rests in actions that remove the opportunity and choices from the kind of future our youth can own.”
“When it is completed, the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea will with greater accuracy and speed, vastly increase the capacity for the kind of scientific research vital to the quest for mankind’s future. It takes place on a sacred mountain; remains consistent with the work of our ancestral forebears; and is done to the benefit of tomorrow’s generations, here in Hawaii, and across the globe.”
Read the whole article here. Highly recommended.
Also, we once wrote about Kalepa at the blog, if you’d like to read more about him.
Very poignant article. For the commoners, the makaainana, the peak of Mauna Kea was a sacred place but it was kapu. It was only the ali’i that chose the best basalt for the adze stone. There was a high chiefess that allowed access to the peak and gave gratitude and respect for the gifts from the goddess of Mauna Kea, Poliahu. Since Poliahu is in a deep sleep, the telescopes on Mauna Kea are eyes for Pele to look out to the other islands in the night sky.