Sacred science

An interesting approach to engage the TMT protestors on their own - supposed - terms. I read an interesting article a while back that said the protests were really more politically motivated than religious, and I think there are overtones of that here as well. I like the approach of trying to connect on an emotional level, appealing to the romantic side of astronomy rather than the practical. I mean, sure, you could write and tell them about the spectral resolution or how many PhD students it's going to keep busy, but that's not likely to work, is it ?

You are much more like the astronomers than you realize. Both of you, native Hawaiians and astronomers, learn by careful observation (maka’ala). You are kia’i mauna, watchers of the mountain. They are kia’i o na hoku, watchers of the stars. Each of you needs the other. Separately, you are out of balance. The two of you need each other and always will, and for that reason... the only end is reconciliation, which can only come through dialogue conducted in the spirit of aloha.

Our sky father, Wakea, was much busier than we thought. He created millions of other worlds. And on some of these planets, the most favored ones, he may have created other living beings... I feel sure that there are some among you, dear kia’i, who know in your gut—in your na’au—that life does exist out there in the cosmos. If you know this, then you must know also that they are your family. They are your cousins just as surely as the taro plant, Wakea’s firstborn child, is your brother.

When you propose to shut down the TMT, you are proposing that we should shut our eyes to our own family. Your own family. This has nothing to do with being for or against science. It is not pono. It violates what I have learned about Hawaiian culture, that ohana comes first.

What will be the effect on you when you abandon your kuleana, your responsibility to Wakea? He brought you to this island and made you stewards of this unique mountain, the mountain you named after him. Mauna Kea is the umbilical cord joining earth to the stars. It is a place that Wakea has designated for looking up as well as for looking down. He could not entrust this place to anyone else. He had to choose gatekeepers who could look in both directions: a caretaking people who valued their connection to the earth, and a voyaging people who valued their connection to the stars. He would not want you to succeed in only half of your mission.

Over and over, the kia’i have referred to the TMT as a “desecration” of the sacred mountain. It is not, and the word should not be uttered again. Instead I ask you to acknowledge that the observatory will consecrate a small part of the mountain to a purpose intended by your own gods. Your mission is not to oppose this consecration, but to make sure that it is done right. Be pono, and make sure that the astronomers are pono too.

I don't know enough (read : anything at all) about Hawaiian culture to say if this is religiously accurate or not. But if it is, it seems hard to maintain the pretense that the protest is really religiously motivated  - why would they act against their own religious goals if that were so ? The letter is then either shaming them for failing in their religious duty or forcing them to confront hypocrisy. It'll be interesting to see the response, if any.

An Open Letter to Telescope Protesters in Hawaii - Issue 83: Intelligence - Nautilus

On July 15, 2019, after a court decision had cleared the way for astronomers to build a new mega-telescope, called the Thirty Meter Telescope, on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, a large group of protesters said, "No."