HILO — What does Mauna Kea mean to you?
Depending on who is asked, you are likely to hear a different answer.
To some, it’s the sacred piko of Hawaii Island, a child born to Wakea and Papahanaumoku. To others, it’s the gateway to the universe, a premier spot for studying the heavens and understanding its origins.
And even some might see it as a place for recreation and tourism.
How to accommodate these interests has been a source of ongoing tension and conflict, highlighted by the dispute about the proposed construction of the largest observatory yet on the mountain, the Thirty Meter Telescope.
With that in mind, the nonprofit group Friends of the Future is hoping to change the conversation, or at least make it more civil and productive, with a new initiative — EnVision Maunakea.
“It feels like everything is right and the time is right,” Susan Maddox, executive team leader with the organization, told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
Maddox will be in charge of the project that will set out to document residents’ vision for the mountain as far out as 100 years through a series of meetings around the island.
The process is funded by the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy and several observatories that use Mauna Kea, but she told the Office of Mauna Kea Management Board on Wednesday that there is no pre-determined goal or angle, other than listening to the public.
“I don’t know where this is going to end, to tell you the truth,” said Doug Simons, an OMKM board member, at the meeting in Hilo. “We feel strongly the conversation needs to happen.”
Simons, director of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and a member of the “working group” that came up with the idea for the initiative, said that’s what the community needs to heal.
Maddox said others involved so far include Greg Chun, OMKM board member and former Kamehameha Schools vice president; Stephanie Nagata, OMKM director; and Ka‘iu Kimura, Imiloa Astronomy Center executive director.
She said those people helped start the conversation but the project will be directed by an aha kuka, a group of 12 to 15 people of various backgrounds and ages that will be selected later.
Asked by an OMKM board member about her own vision, Maddox said: “My personal vision is for it to remain a place that anchors the island.”
She added she has no preconceived ideas of what the mountain should look like in the future.
Maddox told the Tribune-Herald she wants to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves so not just the loudest voices are heard.
“You tend to hear things you ordinarily do not hear,” she said.
One person in the audience at the meeting asked where this effort was years ago when TMT was first looking to build on the mountain.
“I wasn’t aware,” said Davin Vicente, a former UH-Hilo student. “It’s a little late, and now we’re doing patchwork.”
Simons and Chun said the process will be independent of the board, though the input could be used to update the Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan. Chun said it won’t replace their own outreach efforts.
In a letter, UH-Hilo Chancellor Don Straney also said he would work to incorporate feedback from the project into planning for the university’s new master lease for the summit. The existing lease, which allows 13 telescopes to use the mountain, expires in 2033.
“Maunakea is an important cultural, environmental, scientific, and recreational resource the future of which holds profound implications for the Native Hawaiian community, Hawaii Island community, university, state and the world,” he said in the letter to Maddox and Chun.
Straney added the controversy regarding its future presents an opportunity for “careful consideration of diverse interests.”
Maddox said she hopes to have the process finished in a year, but there is yet no timeline for when the work will get started. There might be eight to 10 listening sessions around the island, she said.
“The process is really unfolding,” Maddox said.
For more information, visit envisionmaunakea.org.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.