#a'ole tmt

[trust-the-fox]

Please evebody, show your opposition by signing the petition. This is still very much an ongoing battle no matter what. For updated news, follow @ProtectMaunakea on Instagram. 'A'ole TMT.

Kinda telling how the 'new master plan' for Mauna Kea being approved 4 days ago has gone buried. And where it hasn't it has been carefully worded otherwise to seem like it's a GOOD thing.

No.

The opposition was to any and all telescopes. Not a limit. A hard NO. And an even harder NO on TMT.

“It seems that regardless of the substantial opposition to TMT that the University of Hawaii continues to make TMT the spotlight of the future of Astronomy in Hawaii. What seems to escape the University is that the lands of Mauna Kea in it present identification continually declines as it was once considered ‘Ceded Lands’ and now has been identified by the University as ‘State Owned Lands’. This recent identification portrays Mauna Kea to be State OWNED as opposed to Ceded lands held in Trust, There by perpetuating a false narrative of ownership that is deceptive to potential funders of the TMT project.”

The lands were never ceded. They were stolen.

No to TMT means NO. A'ole TMT

[trust-the-fox]

'A'ole TMT! If you haven't signed the No TMT on Mauna Kea petition yet, please do! The Total signatures are announced on 10th of August, 2022, and the current goal is to get it to 470k before then!

[therainfromfreecloud]

If you asking ‘why protest a telescope?’ Please watch this. For so many years so many have been fighting for this sacred mauna, fighting for the ‘aina that has already borne so much and keeps having to bear more and more and more because of ‘progress’. This is not about anti-science. This is about who we are and what is truly important to us. Who we want to be. Stand with kanaka maoli. THE MAUNA SAYS NO

[kc-79]

A'ole TMT! Keep up the amazing work on raising awareness!

Mahalo nui loa!❤️

Ah how your ask is a breath of fresh air for me due to the last anon. I was lowkey afraid to look in my inbox. Thank you for the encouragement, I needed it.

[redfeathersfarm]

Reposted from @protectmaunakea ACTION ALERT - PLEASE SHARE: This Thursday, July 20th, the University of California Board of Regents will convene to receive an update on the status fo the TMT in Hawaiʻi. They will hear from kiaʻi as well as TMT supporters. Please submit testimony to the UC Board of Regents conveying that every step of the TMT's progress will be met with fierce opposition and will become a total drain on the University of California's finances. In the end the TMT will not be built on Maunakea. TMT supporters will lean on their bogus surveys and tell the UC BOR and President that the majority of people in Hawai'i support the TMT. Let's show them how wrong that is. Email your testimony to regentsoffice@ucop.edu no later that MONDAY, JULY 27th at 8AM. Subject line: UC BOR, July 30, Agenda Item B2. 'A'ole TMT. (correct email in caption not graphic, kala mai) We make a special kāhea to the University of Hawai'i community to submit testimony conveying the mass opposition to the TMT from within our home university. The era of colonial research must end now. Finally, huge mahalo to the students of the UC system and kiaʻi in California for fighting for this agenda item and for showing up to EVERY UC BOR meeting to tell them we will not allow this hewa. Kū Kiaʻi Mauna! #TMTshutdown @ucscmaunakeaprotectors @mkp_ucsb @unr_now All UC BOR meetings are audio only under COVID. We will share details about how to tune in later in the week. - #regrann https://www.instagram.com/p/CDHbpTAhj31/?igshid=1u0mdbdd7e1fl

[decolonizingmedia]

Mauna Kea Protectors Arrested After Successfully Shutting Down TMT Construction

Construction of the $1.4 Billion telescope has been shut down until further notice. More than 700 protesters marched on to the summit to stop the TMT.

Watch a 3-part video series on the Native Hawaiian defense of the their sacred mountain: Mauna Kea TMT Showdown June 24th. 

Part 1: Line Up at Dawn

Part 2: Kapu Aloha

Part 3: Final Push

UPDATES:

Arrested protectors post bail, return to Mauna Kea

More arrests as protectors block Thirty Meter Telescope construction on Mauna Kea

Al Jazeera: Activists were arrested at 9,000 feet trying to stop a telescope being built on sacred land

NY Times: The Fight Over Mauna Kea

Road to Mauna Kea Closed While Protectors Remain 

RESPECT & SOLIDARITY. DECOLONIZE HAWAII. ALOHA ‘ĀINA.

[some-moistened-bint]

the limits of anthropology when folks still alive and kickin are looking you right straight in the eye saying um No.

I really didn’t know what to title this, so there it is.

I was reading the website for the Thirty Meter Telescope abomination that the University of Hawaii and various private enterprises want to build on top of Mauna Kea, ostensibly in the name of Science! and it occurred to me there’s a really big flaw in some of their logic when it comes to the summit.

The website, and all kinds of other pro-telescope propaganda, makes much of how there are no “sites” or burial grounds or artifacts on the summit.

None of which takes into consideration that the site is considered so sacred in the first place that of course none of that stuff is up there.

In other words, “anthropologists” have supposedly helped to conclude, based on an absence of artifacts, that something is unimportant, when the absence of artifacts is part of the ACTUAL PROOF SOMETHING IS IMPORTANT.

In other words, the summit is so sacred in and of itself that there was never any need to put anything there, and as for burial, that wouldn’t even apply to this situation.

The limitations of Settler Thinking, in a nutshell, being trundled out to use as a reason to blast a giant hole in a mountain to build yet another fucking telescope.  They want to see 13 billion years into the past, but can’t be bothered to look back at, oh, 150 years ago right the hell here on earth.  This says everything I need to know about modern scientific thought, in so many ways.  I love science, but shit.  And it’s really rich when they try to pretend that science in and of itself lets them off the hook when it comes to ethics and responsibility-- but an actual scientist wrote that article already, already posted here on my blog, and said it way better than I ever could.  I should reblog it at some point for kicks.

[jacensolodjo]

Based on a reply to my post about Queen Lili’uokalani, I think it’s important to discuss another problem with regards to land. Which is, the TMT observatory on Mauna Kea, found on the Big Island. I have also spoken out against it and have been following the ‘drama’ such as it is. It’s important that people realize that it isn’t done. The fight for Mauna Kea is not over. It is on ‘hold’ due to COVID but there is nothing that says tomorrow they won’t try to build again. 

It’s important that it be known that while government entities are involved, TMT is actually being pushed for by multiple colleges such as Harvard and the University of California (see below about alternate sites being key as why it isn’t fully a government act). In fact, it’s the courts that kinda started everything in defense of Mauna Kea in the first place and have been the ones to shoot down the permits.

The true tragedy about the fight against TMT is everyone could easily come to an accord because there is a secondary site that is just as good and is not sacred nor home to people who could be affected negatively. But that is what is disgusting. They want to keep pushing for Mauna Kea. You can read it in their own words about the site selections here

I love the stars as much as anyone, and so indeed do many opposing the TMT. But not only is there an indigenous religious aspect, but the location is actually inhospitable to humans. Being on the summit or even the access road has caused many to come down ill with oxygen deprivation/altitude sickness, some even having strokes. And that truly is despicable. All these things add up to ‘why the hell do you insist on Mauna Kea’ when there are perfectly good alternates that don’t actually harm anyone, physically or spiritually.

And if we ignore the human element, they even admit it would be cheaper (would have been cheaper) to go for the secondary site in the Canary Islands. The site as well has been protected against light pollution through legal means. That is not so for Mauna Kea.

So again, the question: why the hell do they insist on Mauna Kea?

For more reading with the latest information we have on keeping Mauna Kea preserved in the time of COVID here’s a good article.

Note: While there are indigenous peoples in the Canary Islands, any construction of the TMT would not affect them. The area chosen is not sacred. Nor do they oppose any construction like the kama’aina of Hawaii.

[maryisis]

Mauna Kea is an amazing place.....from the sea floor it is the highest mountain in the world. At the summit, one feels very close to the heavens, which is why it is considered the most sacred place to Hawaiians. The elevation and positioning of this mountain also makes it a supreme place for stargazing, and already there are thirteen large telescopes atop this mountain, The proposed thirty meter telescope would be WAY larger than any of the other ones, and would require mass desecration (bulldozing) of the sacred northern plateau. There is currently a very large public outcry about this which has put the development at a halt, making many question what is truly "Pono", just or right. It is my feeling in my heart that this mountain must be protected, to be remain place of communion with the divine, and sacred ceremony with ancestors. I hold in my vision and prayer that this telescope not be built and that more importance and emphasis be placed on preserving this natural wonder, and searching deep within our selves for the answers we seek. I feel this movement is one of human unity. Because we only need to be human to appreciate these special places...it's not just a Hawaiian issue. Will science and searching out millions of light years into the cosmos give us the answers we seek? Will it make us better humans? Will it help us to fix the problems we have created and restore balance on our earth? These are telling times of truth and consequence....

[chiefbellamy-blog]

A'ole TMT: The Mauna Kea Mountain on the Island of Hawai'i is in danger

The TMT Corporation and the University of Hawai’i Board of Regents are proposing to build a new massive, 18-story telescope, 21,000 square foot office building, road, and parking lot on conservation lands and “ceded” crown lands on Mauna Kea’s summit, called the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Wrong for the mountain: Mauna Kea is unique in the world, a place of deep significance in the Hawaiian worldview, and home to rare Hawaiian plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet. Mauna Kea was honored among the sacred places of the world in a National Geographic (January 2011) Special Edition titled, “The Earth’s Holiest Places: Sacred Journeys.” What’s next: The construction permit for the massive Thirty Meter Telescope complex was considered by the Board of Land and Natural Resources on February 25, 2011. They said “no bulldozers” until a full appeal — known as a contested case — is complete. Take Action! Join your voice with hundreds around Hawai’i! We asking the Land Board reject this permit application, and take true, strong steps to protect the future of Mauna Kea. You can join in action today by signing this petition in support of Hawai’i’s sacred summits: More Information In their own words, from the EIS and CDUA prepared by the developers: How big is the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Development? – 184 ft. tall (18 stories), plus 20 ft. below ground – Telescope: 34,000 sq. ft. – Support and office building: 21,000 sq. ft. – Will excavate 64,000 cubic yards of summit area – Will add 3,400 ft of new road, using excavated dirt to level it – Construction footprint: over 8 acres disturbed – Completed structure footprint: over 5 acres – Average American football field is 1.32 acres What impact will it have? – Construction proposed for the northern plateau, some of the last undeveloped area on the summit – Structure will interrupt viewplane to Haleakalā – Will be visible from 14% of the island, including Waimea Park, Pu’u Kapu & Wa’awa’a, Honoka’a, & Pu’ukohalā – Current telescopes are visible from 43% of the island – Telescope operations will create 74 dbA of noise – Will produce 120-250 cubic feet of solid waste a week – Will use 5,000 gallon underground tank to store hazardous chemicals – Road will require additional construction on Pu’u Kūkahau’ula. The Final EIS for the project admits that telescope construction has had a substantial adverse impact on the natural and cultural resources of the conservation district on the summit. Here is a link to the developers’ description of the TMT: www.tmt.org. Done Deal? Of course, the University Board of Regents sees the proposal as a done deal, and would like us to believe it too. The developers of this project have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a massive PR campaign, assuring us that TMT will have little impact on the summit and that past problems with resource management have been fixed–all hunky dory. But we know that this is not so. -------- Please share this and sign the petition to stop the construction of this telescope. All you have to do is sign. We need 15,000 signatures and if every single one of you signs, we could reach our goal (and THEN SOME). Also, sharing on other social media sites and reblogging on tumblr would be much appreciated. I know most of you don't live here but this is my home. This is a part of me. It IS me. Please, just take five minutes to sign and share. For more information, click here. For updates and photos, Jason Momoa's Instagram is a great place to start. We're so glad to have him supporting this and protesting alongside us on the mountain. Thank you so much for your help. Aiyana xx

[some-moistened-bint]

This is homepage for the Thirty Meter Telescope project that is bound and determined to deface the summit of Mauna Kea.  Note the quote, without true context and without historical merit under the current circumstances.  Note how the quote seems to place a Hawaiian monarch in the position of groveling to the “enlightened nations of the earth”, which is exactly how all of us folks who are Hawaiian natives or descendents have been carefully taught to feel about ourselves.  (I dug around looking to see what the source material of this quote is-- is it reliable in any way, or authentic?  Was the statement a translation?  Was it originally recorded in writing, meaning did the king read a statement in a speech or some such, or was this a newspaper account by a journalist of the era, an era in which journalists pretty freely made things up out of whole cloth to bolster their newspapers and their own country’s various causes?  So far I haven’t gotten to the bottom of it, and I’m going to rifle through my stash of Hawaiian history books in my office later to see what I can find.)

My mom and I were watching a documentary one night on PBS about languages around the world that almost went extinct for various reasons, and one of those languages happened to be Hawaiian, so we were pretty interested in this.  And lo and behold, I’ve been on this planet for a good long time, and this was the first time I heard the statistic, that the Hawaiian kingdom had a 90% literacy rate, compared to the around 45% literacy rate in the United States.  If you are native, you are generally taught in various ways that you and your people are dumb, unintellectual, illiterate, quaint, savage, unenlightened, and completely unworthy, most of all, of freedom and pride and independence.  The ways in which each of us absorb that sense of inferiority can take us in really strange directions.  I myself ignored my Hawaiian heritage for years, pursued an academic life and studied pretty much all of my ancestors EXCEPT my Hawaiian ones for years, and did not embrace anything of my Hawaiian culture except, occasionally, the food.  To this day I have not fully managed to rid myself of that self-hate that was taught all the time, every day, by a white supremicist culture that hates Native people probably the most of everyone-- why?  Because we, Polynesians and Indians, we didn’t leave.  We didn’t stay in the past.  We didn’t die off.  We haven’t disappeared.  We didn’t quite do what was expected, we didn’t go extinct, like a species that is no longer evolutionarily viable, language that is still used to this day to describe us.  The vitriol and hate, though, that is spewed on a regular basis even by supposed rational, educated people (see my next blog entry), is hardly more dangerous than this nonsensical website TMT has erected, to justify themselves and their behavior, to justify “science” that will help us see “billions of years” into the past and drive us forward to “discoveries”, and yet these same people can’t be bothered to look two hundred years into the past, except to find the most ahistorical, decontextualized quote from a Hawaiian monarch that they can find in order to justify their actions today.

I question whether or not any of the Hawaiian monarchs would be cool with using dynamite to blast holes for massive foundations into a mountain, sacred or otherwise.  I know the first king of Hawaii would have probably brained these fucks with a club and tossed their lifeless bodies off the Pali if they suggested such a thing to his face, so there’s that.

I find these people so offensive my head hurts reading that site.  I’m all for ohana and all that shit, but we are rapidly approaching a zero-sum game here.  There is no middle ground.  There is no actual compromise.  When everything is a steady loss, whether hotel building sprees or the Hawaiian-style gentrification that makes New York and San Francisco look like a socialist paradise, everything is an all or nothing fight.  I consider Mauna Kea to be one of those.  We may well lose, and when we do, the whole planet loses, and the whole planet is currently engaged in nothing but steady loss for the humans and animals and plants and land and water, the truly sacred things, being crushed by capitalistic, opportunistic enterprise.

[wordswilling]

People getting arrested for protecting sacred land...

“I know in many of your hearts, you know we are in the right. The laws actually protect us, but it is corruption in those that you answer to that have allowed for this to come forth....Stand strong. Question those authorities.”

[wordswilling]

I don’t know how to write about the defense of sacred land at the top of Mauna Kea. It is people versus machines. People versus systems. Values versus bottom lines. Lives versus progress. And all I know how to do is watch. And hope.

[jacensolodjo]

Kinda telling how the 'new master plan' for Mauna Kea being approved 4 days ago has gone buried. And where it hasn't it has been carefully worded otherwise to seem like it's a GOOD thing.

No.

The opposition was to any and all telescopes. Not a limit. A hard NO. And an even harder NO on TMT.

“It seems that regardless of the substantial opposition to TMT that the University of Hawaii continues to make TMT the spotlight of the future of Astronomy in Hawaii. What seems to escape the University is that the lands of Mauna Kea in it present identification continually declines as it was once considered ‘Ceded Lands’ and now has been identified by the University as ‘State Owned Lands’. This recent identification portrays Mauna Kea to be State OWNED as opposed to Ceded lands held in Trust, There by perpetuating a false narrative of ownership that is deceptive to potential funders of the TMT project.”

The lands were never ceded. They were stolen.

No to TMT means NO. A'ole TMT