https://www.apnews.com/ed9b871b97314a0e832fb4116a8d22b1
EXCERPT: After years of protests and legal battles, Hawaii officials announced Thursday that a massive telescope which will allow scientists to peer into the most distant reaches of our early universe will be built on a volcano that some consider sacred. The state has issued a “notice to proceed” for the Thirty Meter Telescope project, Gov. David Ige said at a news conference. In October, a state Supreme Court’s 4-1 ruling upheld the project’s permits for the $1.4 billion instrument.
“We expect that TMT construction will begin sometime this summer. We will proceed in a way that respects the people, place and culture that make Hawaii unique,” Ige said. “We are all stewards of Mauna Kea. The state has an obligation to respect and honor the unique cultural and natural resources on this special mountain.”
[...] Opponents say the telescope will desecrate sacred land atop Mauna Kea, the state’s highest peak and a place of religious importance to Native Hawaiians. Scientists say the summit is one of the best places on Earth for astronomy. Several telescopes and observatories are already on the summit.
Thursday’s announcement comes on the same day Native Hawaiian practitioners had planned to go to the summit area for a nighttime solstice ceremony and to honor an elder who recently died, said Kealoha Pisciotta, a Native Hawaiian activist who has led some of the protest efforts. “It’s on the eve of our solstice ceremonies. They know that we go up during solstice and equinox,” she said. “We were preparing to head up tonight for the solstice and to honor him.” She said police are only allowing astronomers through and blocking the road to the summit for everyone else, including Hawaiians who asked to go pray. The Department of Land and Natural resources said one person was arrested for obstruction Thursday morning. “They won’t let anyone up,” Pisciotta said. “They said no. They may block us tonight, also.”
Before dawn Thursday morning, state and county officials drove up Mauna Kea to remove four Native Hawaiian structures. Native Hawaiians have used the structures for years, Pisciotta said, and she considers the removal of the structures to be desecration and discriminatory. “What’s the argument for taking them down? It’s completely discriminatory. It’s hostile to the Native Hawaiian people,” she said. “These are places of worship and the places where we lay our offering and our prayer.”
She said their rights to religious freedom are being violated. “If someone went into a church and took down the crucifix or you know the cross, how would that be treated?” Pisciotta asked. Calls and emails to the governor and state attorney general’s office asking if the annual Native Hawaiian solstice ceremony would be permitted on Thursday night were not immediately answered.
The new telescope will allow astronomers to reach back 13 billion years to answer fundamental questions about the advent of the universe. “The world is not black and white. This is not an oil pipeline. It is a telescope to look into the very origins of life in the universe,” Ige said. “We have worked a long time to hear each other and to make a choice as a collective community. To the many who support this project, let us always hold all views as one. Let us always touch the mountain as we gaze out beyond the sky." (MORE)
EXCERPT: After years of protests and legal battles, Hawaii officials announced Thursday that a massive telescope which will allow scientists to peer into the most distant reaches of our early universe will be built on a volcano that some consider sacred. The state has issued a “notice to proceed” for the Thirty Meter Telescope project, Gov. David Ige said at a news conference. In October, a state Supreme Court’s 4-1 ruling upheld the project’s permits for the $1.4 billion instrument.
“We expect that TMT construction will begin sometime this summer. We will proceed in a way that respects the people, place and culture that make Hawaii unique,” Ige said. “We are all stewards of Mauna Kea. The state has an obligation to respect and honor the unique cultural and natural resources on this special mountain.”
[...] Opponents say the telescope will desecrate sacred land atop Mauna Kea, the state’s highest peak and a place of religious importance to Native Hawaiians. Scientists say the summit is one of the best places on Earth for astronomy. Several telescopes and observatories are already on the summit.
Thursday’s announcement comes on the same day Native Hawaiian practitioners had planned to go to the summit area for a nighttime solstice ceremony and to honor an elder who recently died, said Kealoha Pisciotta, a Native Hawaiian activist who has led some of the protest efforts. “It’s on the eve of our solstice ceremonies. They know that we go up during solstice and equinox,” she said. “We were preparing to head up tonight for the solstice and to honor him.” She said police are only allowing astronomers through and blocking the road to the summit for everyone else, including Hawaiians who asked to go pray. The Department of Land and Natural resources said one person was arrested for obstruction Thursday morning. “They won’t let anyone up,” Pisciotta said. “They said no. They may block us tonight, also.”
Before dawn Thursday morning, state and county officials drove up Mauna Kea to remove four Native Hawaiian structures. Native Hawaiians have used the structures for years, Pisciotta said, and she considers the removal of the structures to be desecration and discriminatory. “What’s the argument for taking them down? It’s completely discriminatory. It’s hostile to the Native Hawaiian people,” she said. “These are places of worship and the places where we lay our offering and our prayer.”
She said their rights to religious freedom are being violated. “If someone went into a church and took down the crucifix or you know the cross, how would that be treated?” Pisciotta asked. Calls and emails to the governor and state attorney general’s office asking if the annual Native Hawaiian solstice ceremony would be permitted on Thursday night were not immediately answered.
The new telescope will allow astronomers to reach back 13 billion years to answer fundamental questions about the advent of the universe. “The world is not black and white. This is not an oil pipeline. It is a telescope to look into the very origins of life in the universe,” Ige said. “We have worked a long time to hear each other and to make a choice as a collective community. To the many who support this project, let us always hold all views as one. Let us always touch the mountain as we gaze out beyond the sky." (MORE)