Protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope approached their third week Monday outside the Mauna Kea visitor center following an announcement over the weekend that construction would remain paused until April 20.
With no construction workers to stop, the protest resembled more of a community gathering, with about 100 TMT opponents, who call themselves protectors of the mountain, using the time to talk story, listen to music and build a traditional hale out of ohia wood near the Mauna Kea access road.
Buoyed by a surge of social media support and protests elsewhere around Hawaii and the mainland, opponents of the 180-foot-tall observatory said they have momentum on their side and intend again to try to block workers from reaching the construction site on Mauna Kea’s north flank. Thirty-one protesters were arrested during the last roadblock on April 2.
“It could be one week, one month, one year, and we are still going to be here,” said Mehana Kihoi of Kona.
Hundreds more arrived to show their support over the weekend, protesters said, including several hula halau who were in Hilo for the Merrie Monarch Festival. Protesters said they believed the agreement by TMT Observatory Corp. to pause land clearing at the construction site was meant to avoid much larger protests as crews tried to again make their way up the mountain.
Lanakila Mangauil of Honokaa said those protesting on the mountain or elsewhere have been asked to follow “kapu aloha,” meaning that participants should show compassion rather than anger.
“I think that’s what has made this entire movement possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit corporation behind the $1.4 billion telescope launched a new website — maunakeaandtmt.org — aimed at addressing the protests and claims about the project’s impacts to the mountain. It also started a new social media hashtag #WeSupportTMT. Opponents use the hashtag #WeAreMaunaKea.
“It’s part of getting our message out,” said Sandra Dawson, TMT spokeswoman. “We want people to understand, before we start back up, the real facts.”
She said that has been the main reason for the pause in land clearing at the construction site at the 13,150-foot elevation, but acknowledged that the timing of last week’s Merrie Monarch Festival also was part of the consideration.
Dawson said one of the main misconceptions is that the telescope will pollute groundwater. She said a holding tank will be double-hulled and any waste will be trucked off the mountain.
While construction is on hold, she said TMT is moving forward with providing $1 million a year in educational grants for Hawaii Island through its THINK fund. A workforce pipeline is also in the works to train island residents to fill as many of the estimated 130 permanent jobs as possible.
The protests started in an effort to stop further development on a mountain Native Hawaiians consider sacred and part of their creation story. Hawaiians see the mountain as the piko, or navel, that connects them to the spiritual world and is home to several gods.
“The mountain to us is a temple,” said Karalyn Nalani Henderson of Maui, who was helping to build the hale. “Because it’s the highest point, it connects us to our spiritual journey.”
Mauna Kea is also considered one of the world’s best sites for astronomy because of its clear view of the heavens, and is home to 13 telescopes. TMT, which will allow astronomers to see 13 billion light years away, would be the largest and most advanced.
Henderson said the protests are also about healing for the Hawaiian people and the reclaiming of their cultural and spiritual places.
“I’ve been anticipating a coming together of our people for some time, and I didn’t know when it would happen,” she said. “Everybody is unified more than we have been in a hundred years.”
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.