A note of discord
DKIST’s size and impact didn’t present an issue just for the astronomy community. It also generated significant controversy among Native Hawaiian and environmental groups in the islands. Although activists on Maui never matched the scale of protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, they made several attempts to block delivery of parts to Haleakala’s summit, calling attention to their opposition to the project.
Mountain peaks are considered especially sacred in Native Hawaiian culture, in which religion and spirituality are tied closely to the land. Opponents said DKIST, along with other construction on Haleakala, was a painful reminder of the theft of Hawaiian lands by Western colonizers, and symbolized the lack of respect shown to Hawaiian cultural sites. “It’s a symbol of oppression that you can see physically in our most sacred space,” says Kaleikoa Kaeo, a Hawaiian-language educator at the University of Hawaii, Maui College, who was arrested while leading a DKIST protest in 2017. “Our people have never given consent to the taking control of Mauna Kea, taking control of Haleakala. It’s really about our fight to determine for ourselves, and control for ourselves, our sacred spaces.”
Rimmele notes that DKIST has worked with members of the Hawaiian community to address their concerns. These efforts include providing a shelter for cultural practitioners preparing for ceremonies at a nearby shrine, minimizing noise pollution, requiring employees to undergo cultural training before working on Haleakala, forming a working group to gather input from Native Hawaiian leaders, and establishing a $20 million fund at the University of Hawaii, Maui College, for a program that combines STEM education with Hawaiian cultural knowledge.
McLaren also acknowledges the opposition and says the university has tried to work with Maui residents to address their concerns. “There’s always been a segment within the local community that would really prefer that there wasn’t any astronomy on the mountains. Partly for aesthetic reasons, partly for cultural reasons, they’d prefer the mountains be left undisturbed,” he says. “Recently, it’s been more intense on Mauna Kea, and to a certain extent on Haleakala.”
An increasingly difficult political climate, combined with tight constraints on space, means that any future development on Haleakala will replace or repurpose an existing facility, McLaren says. “There’s no thought at all of any major new facility,” he says. “There’s simply not room, and we’ve got plenty of activity there.”