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Big MAHALO to Christen Marquez for hosting a screening of Na Maka o Ka Aina‘s Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege film. Christen is herself a film maker and Miwa met her on a trip to LA while giving a presentation on what’s been going on Mauna a Wakea.  Check out Christen’s facebook page with info about her film here.  Check out her blog for more about the screening.  Mahalo to everyone who came out to learn more and to  all who signed the petition.  It’s awesome to know we have hoa aina across the big blue sea.

If you are interested in holding a screening of your own, please email me at  shelley@kahea.org.

Aloha `ohana,

Last week Wednesday, a group of about 25 or 30 people came together for a screening of the film Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege from Puhipau and Joan at Na Maka o ka Aina. Mahalo also to Native Books/Na Mea Hawai`i for hosting us, to Rey for mixing the `awa for us, and to Kamu and Miwa for running back to downtown at the last moment to bring the TV from our office!

Mahalo to Rey for providing the kanoa and to everybody at Na Mea for hosting us!

Despite the technical difficulties the audience graciously and patiently hung in there! Uncle Ku shared about the huaka`i (trips) that their Mauna Kea have been taking.  It is so inspiring to see how much ground they’ve covered! It is so important for us to, both figuratively and in this case physically, walk the path of our ancestors.

Uncle Tane, Uncle Baron, and Uncle Ku--awesome mana`o, mahalo for sharing!

Far too often culture and tradition are relegated to the past, with all modern day iterations appearing either as museum displays, placards or reenactments.  I think physically having our feet on the dirt does something to us–it was really beautiful to hear about their journeys and rediscovery together.  My favorite story was about their journey in 2003 on Ka La Hoihoi Ea (a Hawaiian National holiday commemorating the return of sovereignty after a short occupation by a British dude named Lord Paulet).

The simple act of honoring this day is cool in itself, but in 2003 the Mauna Kea Hui hiked to the summit with our national flags to raise them at the highest peak in the archipelago.  The pictures look super windy! What powerful images on so many levels!

If you’d be interested in hosting a screening of this film, email shelley@kahea.org  We only have a limited number of DVDs to lend out, but we do want to share the message as much as we can.

Also, here is a link to the online petition, please feel free to pass this link along far and wide.  We are in the process of getting a new website up, but this one will have to do for a couple more months! E kala mai!

Mahalo to Pono Kealoha for documenting this event!

The UH Board of Regents made big “TAH-DAH!” over approving their giant Thirty Meter Telescope project for Mauna Kea this summer. Plenty press releases, plenty press. KAHEA staff tend to kind of shrug over this kind of “approval”, but after hearing so many comments and questions from all of you, we decided we should address it. Fundamental question: WHY is the Board of Regents approving TMT?

The term “manufacturing consent” comes to mind. Hmm.

Okay, let’s say for example, that Kanoe and Tyler want to build a parking lot in your front yard. Kanoe writes the proposal. Tyler votes to approve her proposal, and sends out a press release saying “Parking lot approved!” And your neighbors think, “”My, my. There’s going to be a parking lot over there.” Now, did you get any say about this parking lot? Nope! Does it matter? Of course it does.

A little tutorial on developing conservation lands, and looking good while doing it:

Mauna Kea is public trust “ceded lands” and a conservation district. This means that the mountain is to be managed “in trust” for the people of Hawai’i, and that its natural and cultural resources are to be protected and sustained. Under state law, the responsibility for managing these lands falls to the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). DLNR does not financially benefit directly from development of Mauna Kea, and it is the agency with the mandate under state law to protect and conserve these lands.

Yet.

Today, the University Board of Regents appoints 100% of members to the Office of Mauna Kea Management. The Regents appoint 100% of the members of Kahu Ku Mauna. The University paid the consultant who wrote the management plan for Mauna Kea. At the end of the day, we have to ask: Who’s interests are being represented? Who is being left out?

So many have worked so hard and sacrificed so much, to get us to where we are today. Twenty years ago, the University and the UH Institute for Astronomy could not and would not even acknowledge the existence of clear problems. Two lawsuits and two state audits later, we can finally openly acknowledge past wrongs, and talk about impacts of astronomy development on cultural and natural resources. Not just on Mauna Kea, but Hawai’i's other sacred summits as well.

But without true change in management (!), it’s just that: talk.

If you support true community management of Hawai’i's sacred summits, you can join with the thousands of others around Hawai’i who are saying “Enough already” and demand a truly pono future for some of Hawai’i's most sacred places. Sign the petition today!

From Marti:

This legislative session didn’t turn out to be as bad as it could have been for our natural and cultural resources.  By mid-session this year, there were proposals to drastically weaken our EIS law, transfer 54% of the Division of Aquatic Resources to HIMB for groundskeepers (really, Dr. Leong? You know, City Mill has a sale on lawnmowers), and grant corporations extended leases to exploit our ocean. Thanks to the advocacy of so many, none of these proposals passed.

Not only that, legislators did manage to pass some good bills (in addition to HB 444). Sitting on the Governor’s desk for approval right now are laws that make it a felony to intentionally kill Hawaiian monk seals, require solar water heaters on new homes, and prevent beachfront landowners from using naupaka to block public access to and along the shoreline. It’s about time! Thanks also to your efforts, an audit will happening for Mauna Kea–albeit a self-audit. And while we still believe a self-audit is really no kind of audit at all, we do see it as a step in the right direction by the legislature. A very small, very weak and very tentative step, but a step nonetheless.

Mahalo to all those whose late nights, phone calls, petition gathering, and committed advocacy helped keep this 2010 legislative session from going off the rails.