The legacy of colonialism on public lands created the Mauna Kea conflict

If you spend much time in the American West, you’re likely to see someone wearing a T-shirt that says “Public Land Owner.” It’s an assertion that public lands are owned by everyone and that their management is of critical importance to us all. In Hawai’i, a battle over public land and Indigenous rights has complicated that sentiment for many, as Native Hawai’ians find themselves forced to defend their homeland.

For weeks, thousands of Native Hawai’ians have been blocking the only access road to Mauna Kea, the largest mountain in Hawai’i, to oppose the construction of the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) at its summit. After 10 years of fighting its construction, Native leaders began demonstrating after Hawai’i’s Department of Land and Natural Resources issued a “notice to proceed,” allowing the University of Hawaii, the permit holder for the TMT, to begin building.

The conflict on Mauna Kea — between Indigenous people and the state of Hawaii — illustrates not only the issue of how public lands are managed but also an emerging debate over how Indigenous rights to those lands are addressed. What we see in these conflicts are two ways of viewing and using public lands in the American West: as places for development and as culturally important landscapes.

As an Indigenous person, I can identify with Native Hawai’ians who want to save what is left of their sacred mountain and their right to access it, before it is overdeveloped. As a scholar, however, with an undergraduate degree in physics, no less, I understand and even sympathize with scientists who want to build one of the world’s largest telescopes in order to better understand the mysteries of our universe. A telescope on top of a mountain is ideal — but perhaps not on this mountain.

Read more: https://www.hcn.org/articles/tribal-affairs-the-legacy-of-colonialism-on-public-lands-created-the-mauna-kea-conflict
(High Country News)