"We may lose our culture forever," notes Kealoha Pisciotta, who was the first Native Hawaiian employed at the observatory. On her way to work for 12 years, she would worship on the mountainside to her ancestors (aumakua), at a stone. After it was desecrated various times, she resigned, "We've shared Aloha with the astronomers for 30 years. Enough is enough. If they do not care for the mountain and behave in the temple, then they should get out. We have given as much Aloha as we can."
Hawaiians complain that construction has desecrated some of the summit's distinct cinder cones (pu'u), considered bodies of deities. "Mauna Kea is our temple. You would not build on the Vatican and tell the Pope when he can come and go. The god Kane descended from this mountain. In Western terms, land is not conceived of as a temple," Pisciotta notes. In an often-quoted statement, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Professor Ira Rohter said, "Some just look up and see a mountain, but for the Hawaiians, it's like building a McDonald's at Stonehenge."
"Science is important," Pisciotta asserts. "But the scientists say that our culture is not as valid as their work. Astronomy has become the new version of the colonial plantation mentality. They want us to just shut up and work for them." Various government officials, in fact, look to astronomy to take a more dominant role in Hawai'i's economy, as the sugar plantations once did. They describe astronomy as a "clean industry," though evidence is emerging that it in fact does significant damage to the mountain's environment and downstream.
Hawaiians complain that construction has desecrated some of the summit's distinct cinder cones (pu'u), considered bodies of deities. "Mauna Kea is our temple. You would not build on the Vatican and tell the Pope when he can come and go. The god Kane descended from this mountain. In Western terms, land is not conceived of as a temple," Pisciotta notes. In an often-quoted statement, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Professor Ira Rohter said, "Some just look up and see a mountain, but for the Hawaiians, it's like building a McDonald's at Stonehenge."
"Science is important," Pisciotta asserts. "But the scientists say that our culture is not as valid as their work. Astronomy has become the new version of the colonial plantation mentality. They want us to just shut up and work for them." Various government officials, in fact, look to astronomy to take a more dominant role in Hawai'i's economy, as the sugar plantations once did. They describe astronomy as a "clean industry," though evidence is emerging that it in fact does significant damage to the mountain's environment and downstream.