The telescopes on Mauna Kea are built, owned, and operated by various universities, astronomical institutes, and foreign governments. One of the issues "behind the scenes" is that Native Hawaiian activists want them to pay money for the privilege of using the land at Mauna Kea. Telescope sponsors already pay into a fund for maintenance of the road and shared facilities. But telescope sponsors have not been asked to pay lease rent for using the land. Instead, they sign a contract to provide the University of Hawai'i telescope time for UH scholars to use the telescopes to do their research. Telescope time is extremely valuable. UH researchers have used their no-charge telescope time to make major discoveries. However, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs does not receive any ceded land revenue from non-monetary, in-kind payments of telescope time; and Hawaiian institutions other than the University of Hawai'i astronomy institute receive no benefits at all. (except for the benefit we all receive as human beings from exploring the history of the universe!) There have been several proposals from Native Hawaiian groups to stop their environmental and cultural protests in return for monetary payments to be characterized as lease-rent. Commentators can draw their own conclusions regarding whether some of these Native Hawaiian groups are abusing cultural/spiritual claims as vehicles for financial extortion.
In the past few years there have been many newspaper articles about the astronomical observatories on Mauna Kea and Native Hawaiian protests. Here is a list of a few of those articles from 1999 to 2003, which are excerpted below, in chronological order. There are also articles from this period describing some of the world-class discoveries made on Mauna Kea by University of Hawai’i and other astronomers.
(1) May 22, 1999, Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Public invited to discuss Mauna Kea master plan; problems have been raised by native Hawaiians and a critical state auditor's report
(2) June 18, 1999 Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Science vs. spirit is key Mauna Kea issue; Native Hawaiians tell the University of Hawaii's regents of their concern about more development at the cluster of telescopes. Possibility of violence is raised.
(3) September 9, 1999 Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Some Hawaiians upset that Japan’s Princess Sayako to dedicate Japan's Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea
(4) January 17, 2002 Honolulu Advertiser: Office of Hawaiian Affairs Clayton Hee proposes that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should pay $20 Million compensation for use of Mauna Kea
(5) March 9, 2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Important discoveries made by University of Hawai'i astronomers using the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea; UH astronomers peer back to universe's infancy.
(6) April 9, 2002, Honolulu Advertiser: 10th Anniversary of Keck Observatory; world's largest and most powerful; major discoveries made.
(7) May 17, 2002, Honolulu Advertiser: University of Hawai’i astronomers using Canada-France-Hawai’i telescope on Mauna Kea discover 11 more moons of Jupiter, some as small as 2 miles in diameter; the same astronomers previously discovered 11 of Jupiter’s other moons.
(8) February 17, 2003, Honolulu Advertiser: Mauna Kea astronomer essay saying there is room for us all on Mauna Kea; astronomy and searching for knowledge is a spiritual and cultural quest for ethnic Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike.
(9) May 28, 2003, Honolulu Star-Bulletin: University of Hawai’i astronomer wins the internationally prestigious Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists, from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.
============================
(1) May 22, 1999, Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Public invited to discuss Mauna Kea master plan; problems have been raised by native Hawaiians and a critical state auditor's report
http://starbulletin.com/1999/05/22/news/story5.html
What's in the stars for the Mauna Kea Science Reserve is open for public discussion as part of a proposed 2000-2020
master plan for the international observatory site.
The University of Hawaii and Group 70 International, project consultant, are seeking feedback over the next 30 days on an
environmental impact statement for the plan.
The current UH master plan for Mauna Kea, which has guided development at the premier ground-based astronomy site
since 1983, must be updated to resolve problems brought up by the community, native Hawaiians and a critical state
auditor's report, said Jeffrey H. Overton, chief environmental planner for the project.
The February 1998 auditor's report said natural resources at Mauna Kea were neglected by the university and the
Department of Land and Natural Resources. It said there was weak implementation of the Mauna Kea management plan
and that historic and cultural preservation were neglected. Guidelines for public access to the observatory were also
lacking.
The Board of Land and Natural Resources in 1968 granted the university a 65-year lease for 11,288 acres of state land at
Mauna Kea, predominantly at the 13,200-foot summit and at support facilities at Hale Pohaku at 9,800 feet. There are 13
telescopes and one antenna system on the summit.
Overton yesterday said the Mauna Kea Advisory Committee, set up by UH President Kenneth P. Mortimer, has been
working on the problems raised in the auditor's report. It has been almost 30 years since the mountain facilities and sites
have been studied, he said.
Overton said UH is proposing a 20-year integrated management plan which includes a physical plan as well as a
management plan that preserves significant natural and cultural resources while it sets the scope of future development for
astronomy education and research.
"It's a different approach in that there's a much deeper awareness of the natural and cultural resources and their
significance at Mauna Kea," Overton said.
But others complain the plan -- outlined in a May 12 draft environmental impact statement preparation notice -- is
unacceptable, in part because the state does not have the money to fund the proposal.
"They haven't dealt with the critical issues," said Nelson Ho, conservation committee chairman of the Sierra Club. "They
deferred or sugar-coated it."
Ho yesterday said UH has put forth false promises for the mountain because it knows that it and the Department of Land
and Natural Resources don't have the funds to carry out the plans.
The Sierra Club, along with several Hawaiian groups, also criticized the environmental impact statement planning process,
saying the closed-door advisory committee meetings have left the public out of talks on Mauna Kea's future.
The plan also doesn't require UH to consult with Hawaiian organizations. Ka Lahui Hawaii, in an October 1998 report on
Mauna Kea, said the sacred mountain is home to the goddess Poliahu and is the site of several religious and cultural
resources, both man-made and spiritual.
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June 18, 1999 Star-Bulletin: Science vs. spirit is key Mauna Kea issue; Native Hawaiians tell the University of Hawaii's regents of their concern about more development at the cluster of telescopes. Possibility of violence is raised.
http://starbulletin.com/1999/06/18/news/story10.html
Native Hawaiians spoke with deep emotion, and the University of Hawaii Board of Regents listened in what some called a
symbolic breakthrough in UH attitudes toward Hawaiian issues.
And this morning, the regents adopted the concept of establishing a Mauna Kea management authority that will report to the
chancellor of UH-Hilo and also establishing a permanent advisory committee made up of native Hawaiians, business people,
astronomers and others in the community.
No new construction will be approved on Mauna Kea until these two bodies are in place.
Regent John Hoag said he hopes this is the "first step in the healing process" surrounding the Mauna Kea controversy and
that it will lead to "more global recognition of the Hawaiian culture."
The authority, instead of the Institute for Astronomy at UH-Manoa, would manage telescopes atop the Big Island mountain,
the most sacred spot in the islands to native Hawaiians.
Yesterday regents heard details on the proposed draft Mauna Kea Master Plan for construction of more telescopes on the
summit.
During six hours of committee meetings, native Hawaiians gave impassioned testimony about the sacredness of Mauna Kea,
their opposition to further development, and their great distrust of the university and the astronomy community. For most of
the regents, it was the first time they heard such testimony firsthand.
Regent Nainoa Thompson, a native Hawaiian, said the Mauna Kea controversy reflected much bigger issues.
"This is really about abuse of the native people being subject to racism and disrespect," said Thompson. "This is an
opportunity for a real turning point, a defining moment. The university is the most powerful instrument to shape Hawaii's
future."
The master plan, according to Francis Oda, Group 70 International chairman and chief executive officer, would build up to
four new telescopes on Mauna Kea and up to six "outriggers," minitelescopes attached as "appendages" to existing
telescopes. The plan, which must be approved by the regents, also includes up to 12 new antennas, said Oda, whose company
was hired by UH as professional planners.
Oda said the new sites would be designed to blend in with the environment, making them less eyesores, and they would not
be built in areas that would interfere with sacred native Hawaiian sites. Public access to the summit would be managed but
not restricted, and Hawaiians would be free to carry on religious and cultural activities.
Oda said a lot of misinformation has alarmed the public, such as talk that more than 50 new telescopes would be built.
Hank Fergerstrom, a Hawaiian from Waimea, next to Mauna Kea, said he was happy about the regents' reaction but was "also
very cautious. Words are very cheap."
Eight people testified against the draft plan, most Hawaiians, and some suggested violent protest.
"One time we were warlike people," said Charles "Uncle Charlie" Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr., a Hawaiian cultural consultant.
"You are pushing us in a corner. When will you hear?"
Reynolds Kamakawiwoole Jr., a former police officer, said he has had powerful spiritual experiences on Mauna Kea.
"In Japan if you did this to a temple, they would kill you," Kamakawiwoole said, referring to the telescopes built on Mauna
Kea's summit.
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September 9, 1999 Star-Bulletin: Some Hawaiians upset that Japan’s Princess Sayako to dedicate Japan's Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea
http://starbulletin.com/1999/09/09/news/story6.html
Japan's Princess Sayako is looking forward to her visit to the powerful Subaru telescope atop Mauna Kea.
Sayako, who arrives Sunday for a week, will dedicate the telescope, developed by the National Astronomical Observatory
of Japan.
But some native Hawaiians oppose the dedication because they oppose development on Mauna Kea, which they consider
sacred.
Originally the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii-Manoa was to host a visit by the princess, said the
center's director, Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa.
Kame'eleihiwa at first saw the reception as a way to teach the princess about "the sovereignty movement, the struggle for
the land. It was a way to get access to someone high in the Japanese government." But as soon as she heard about the
telescope dedication, she canceled the event.
Kame'eleihiwa said she has fought the development herself, and the center has opposed it as well. She said she was sure
native Hawaiians would hold demonstrations during Sayako's visit.
Ikuhiko Ono with the Japanese Consulate in Hawaii said Japanese officials expected no problems during Sayako's visit.
Although he said the Japanese understood the feelings of native Hawaiians, "Subaru was built with the cooperation of so
many institutions in Japan and Hawaii."
Ono said Sayako's visit to the UH-Manoa campus was not connected to the telescope.
Jim Manke, UH spokesman, said the tentative campus itinerary for Sayako's visit Tuesday includes a visit with Asian
theater students who will give a kabuki performance at Kennedy Theatre, and going to the Japanese garden at the
East-West Center.
The UH-Manoa stop will be followed by lunch with Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris.
This is the first visit to Hawaii for the Japanese princess. Her parents, Japan's emperor and empress, visited in 1994, and her
grandfather, the late Emperor Hirohito, came in 1975.
Sayako, 30, is the only daughter of Japan's royal family. She has traveled abroad 11 times. When she's at home, she
occupies her days studying birds, practicing traditional dance, giving occasional speeches, advocating the training of guide
dogs -- and fueling rumors about suitors and prospective husbands.
Work began on the $300 million optical and infrared telescope in 1991 and is expected to be completed by the end of the
year.
Meanwhile, native Hawaiians will gather in Waimea to pay tribute to Mauna Kea on Saturday in response to the proposed
expansion of astronomy facilities there, they said. "What we hope to achieve is to raise the consciousness of Hawaiians and
others who hold to values higher than science," said Clifford Kapono, an organizer.
Kapono said the group does not plan any protests during Sayako's visit, nor do they target any particular astronomy
organization. "We would hope that she sees herself in the fashion of Princess Di," Kapono said. "She will investigate what
we are saying."
Sayako said in Tokyo that she also was interested in meeting with nature conservation experts and learning about ancient
Hawaiian culture.
She complimented the accomplishments of Japanese-Americans in Hawaii and of their bravery serving in the European
Theater during World War II, which her parents described to her as a child.
"I also believe that the hardships of the first immigrants and the suffering of the immigrants in the complicated and severe
conditions during World War II cannot be expressed in words alone," Sayako said.
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January 17, 2002 Honolulu Advertiser: Office of Hawaiian Affairs Clayton Hee proposes that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should pay $20 Million compensation for use of Mauna Kea
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Jan/17/ln/ln15a.html
NASA should set aside $20 million for education in Hawai'i as compensation for use of Mauna Kea as an astronomy center, Office of Hawaiian Affairs
Chairman Clayton Hee said yesterday.
Hee, who said he was expressing his own position, and not speaking for OHA, spoke to a consultation meeting in Hilo on a proposal for four more telescopes
to function as "outriggers" for the Keck I and Keck II telescopes already on the mountain. A draft environmental impact statement for the telescope plan
suggests the project could mitigate some of its effect by meeting educational needs of Native Hawaiians.
Hee said his suggestion is that some of the vast sums spent on astronomy be redirected to provide "a local program for local people," so that, "at the end of
the food chain, the community is the beneficiary."
Hee said $600 million has been spent on the cluster of observatories atop Mauna Kea, and $50 million is spent annually maintaining and using them.
The Mauna Kea observatory complex sits on ceded lands from which Native Hawaiians by law are entitled to derive revenue.
Hee also proposed that NASA finance the creation of a public school curriculum in astronomy, science and navigation for students in grades K-12.
Hee said the Royal Order of Kamehameha supported the suggestion at the Hilo meeting. Former University of Hawai'i regent Stan Roehrig called it "long
overdue."
The expansion of the Keck Observatory system would establish four, and later possibly a total of six, outrigger scopes that would be used simultaneously with
the 10-meter Keck telescopes.
Keck Observatory Director Fred Chaffee said the NASA-funded project would produce images of the sky "a factor of 10 better than can be produced by any
telescope in the world."
"This precision is unprecedented in the history of astronomy, and initially will be used to search for solar systems in formation and for already formed planets
around nearby stars," Chaffee said.
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March 9, 2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Important discoveries made by University of Hawai'i astronomers using the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea; UH astronomers peer back to universe's infancy.
http://starbulletin.com/2002/03/09/news/index16.html
A galaxy discovered by University of Hawaii astronomers and international colleagues is giving them
a look at the early formation of galaxies and stars.
UH astronomer Esther Hu, who led the research, said the galaxy "is forming stars at a time speculated
to be in the 'Dark Ages' of the universe when galaxies begin to 'turn on.'"
It's believed the universe began with the Big Bang about 16 billion years ago. As it expanded and
cooled over the next half-billion years -- the so-called Dark Ages period -- the cold gas began to form
the first galaxies, the scientists said.
Re-ionized light from the newly formed galaxies and quasars ended the Dark Ages.
A paper reporting discovery of the new galaxy will appear in the April 1 issue of the Astrophysical
Journal Letters.
The astronomers used the Abell 370 cluster, 6 billion light-years away with a mass of several hundred
galaxies at its core, to magnify light from a galaxy behind the cluster that is 15.5 billion light years
away.
Len Cowie, UH astronomer who was on the research team, said it is important that the new object is a
galaxy and not a quasar. "When the first galaxies form, it's like turning on lights to clear out a fog
bank," he said.
"Quasars are really bright, though rare, so they can make large clear cavities around themselves, but
the fact that light from the fainter but much more numerous galaxies is getting out means that a
significant amount of early star formation has already taken place and much of the general fog has
already dissipated."
The latest galaxy identified represents the universe at about 780 million years of age -- about 50
million years earlier than the most distant quasar known and 80 million years earlier than the
suspected end of the Dark Ages.
The team's findings were made with the Keck 1 telescope and followed up with infrared images on the
Subaru Telescope, both on Mauna Kea.
"You want to catch galaxies in their infancy and see how they develop," Hu said. "Scaling the age of
the universe to a person's lifetime, we're showing you baby pictures. The last galaxy snapshot showed
a toddler just past his fourth birthday. This one is 3 1/2."
She said this is good news for the Next Generation Space Telescope to be launched in the next
decade, because "there should be plenty of these distant galaxies bright enough to observe, using a
large telescope with good infrared detectors above the strong air-glow of our atmosphere."
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April 9, 2002, Honolulu Advertiser: 10th Anniversary of Keck Observatory; world's largest and most powerful; major discoveries made.
http://starbulletin.com/1999/05/22/news/story5.html
consolidated with
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Apr/09/ln/ln10a.html
On Sunday, the W.M. Keck Observatory will hold a public open house on the Keck campus in Waimea on the Big Island to celebrate the 10th anniversary of "first light" for the world's first 10-meter telescope. As a buildup to that big day, evening public lectures by two of the world's foremost astronomers — Dr. Richard Ellis of Caltech and Dr. Joseph Miller of the University of California — will be presented at the Gates Performing Arts Center on the Hawai'i Preparatory Academy campus at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.
Ten years ago, the world's newest and largest telescope was seen as a daring and very uncertain technological gamble. On April 14, 1992, Keck I was first pointed toward the heavens, and the astronomical world watched expectantly to see whether the gamble would pay off. Four short years later, close on the heels of Keck I's early success, Keck II joined its older sister in the exploration of the universe. Today, the twin Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea are recognized as among the most important and productive in history. Astronomers are very fortunate to have
the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain, the best observatory site in the Northern Hemisphere.
Observations made with these marvelous instruments have revolutionized many aspects of astronomy. In 2001, a blue-ribbon panel of U.S. and Canadian astronomers reviewing Keck's scientific contributions summed up the observatory's international standing in two words: "Keck rules." What a pleasure it is to look back on the first decade of the Keck Observatory. In that decade, hundreds of astronomers from all over the world have used the Keck telescopes to study everything from objects in "our own back yard" to those at the farthest reaches of the universe.
Starting close to home, 10 years ago, only nine planets were known to exist — those in our own solar system. Today the "planet count" is approaching 100, with Saturn-sized and larger planets having been detected around 70 other stars out to a distance of 250 light-years (1,500 trillion miles) from our own sun. Most of these planets were detected using the Keck I telescope. The measurements required are of exquisite precision. The planets reveal their existence by their gravitational pull on their parent star, causing it to wobble at a speed of a brisk human walk. Imagine being able to measure a star 1,500 trillion miles away wobbling at walking speed. At the other end of the universe, the record for the most distant object known has been set several times by Keck astronomers. The most recent, a galaxy at a distance of 15.5 billion light years from Earth, was reported by University of Hawai'i astronomers early in 2002.
These represent but two examples of major discoveries made by the Keck telescopes in their first decade. Other discoveries, such as evidence for an accelerating (not just an expanding) universe, evidence supporting the Big Bang theory through the detection of material created in the first few seconds after "the beginning" and evidence for a whole new class of cool stars — in the transition zone between stars and planets — have all been made by astronomers using the Keck telescopes.
The observatory's success is a tribute to: The W.M. Keck Foundation, which had the wisdom and faith to fund the construction of this visionary "gamble;" The University of California and the California Institute of Technology, the founding partners for the observatory, whose astronomers, along with their University of Hawai'i colleagues, have made so many discoveries with the world's two largest telescopes; The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which joined the Keck partnership in 1996 and has pioneered the use of the Keck telescopes as an interferometer; The many men and women — scientists, engineers, technicians and many others — who have worked for the Keck Observatory from its earliest days right to the present to make this dream a living reality; All of our Big Island friends, neighbors and colleagues — businesses, schools, community organizations, county officials and others — with whom we work so closely.
Two visiting astronomers will appear at free lectures this week as a part of the W.M. Keck Observatory's 10th anniversary celebration. Richard Ellis, director of the Palomar Observatory in California and a professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, will speak Thursday on "Gravitational Lensing: Nature's Giant Telescopes." Friday evening, Joseph Miller of the Lick Observatory in California will discuss "The Intimate Relationship between Galaxies and Quasars, the Monsters that Live at Their Centers." Both events are open to the public and begin at 7 p.m. at the Gates Performing Arts Center on the upper campus of Hawai'i Preparatory Academy.
Completed in 1992, the Keck I telescope is the world's most powerful tool for exploring the universe. The Keck II telescope opened in 1997. Both $70 million projects were financed by grants from the Los-Angeles-based W.M. Keck Foundation. The observatory is operated by the California Association for Research in Astronomy, a partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA.
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May 17, 2002, Honolulu Advertiser: University of Hawai’i astronomers using Canada-France-Hawai’i telescope on Mauna Kea discover 11 more moons of Jupiter, some as small as 2 miles in diameter; the same astronomers previously discovered 11 of Jupiter’s other moons.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/May/17/ln/ln07a.html
University of Hawai'i astronomers announced yesterday that they have newly identified 11 more moons of Jupiter, bringing that planet's total to 39 —
more than any other planet in our solar system. If this sounds like something you've heard before, that's because they found 11 last year as well. The team led by planetary astronomer David Jewitt and graduate student Scott Sheppard expects to find still more when Hawai'i's weather clears.
All these newly identified moons, or satellites, are much smaller than the four big ones that the astronomer Galileo found in 1610. Those moons —
Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa — range from 2,000 to 3,000 miles across. The new ones are on the order of 2 miles across.
Amazing new technology in astronomy is allowing scientists to pick out objects in space that they have never before been able to see and track. In this case, Jewitt said, the largest digital imaging camera in the world was fitted on the Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope atop Mauna Kea and aimed at Jupiter. The camera takes digital images that measure 12,000 pixels by 8,000 pixels. That's nearly 100 million pixels, about 100 times the number taken by a standard consumer-model digital camera. The images were processed and searched with a computer program written by Cambridge University scientist Jan Kleyna.
Jewitt said there's still plenty to learn about the new jovian satellites, such as what they're made of, their shapes, how dense they are and so on. He said he hopes within the next year to use the giant Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea to get more details about them.
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February 17, 2003, Honolulu Advertiser: Mauna Kea astronomer essay saying there is room for us all on Mauna Kea; astronomy and searching for knowledge is a spiritual and cultural quest for ethnic Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Feb/17/op/op04a.html
Posted on: Monday, February 17, 2003
ISLAND VOICES
There's room for everybody on Mauna Kea
By Michael West
Associate professor of astronomy, University of Hawai'i at Hilo
If Queen Lili'uokalani had lived today, she might have been an astronomer. This thought occurred to me as I spent a few enjoyable hours sailing under the starry skies with a group of Big Island astronomers and Native Hawaiians aboard the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Makali'i.
Lili'uokalani, Hawai'i's last reigning monarch until her overthrow in 1893, was a woman of great intelligence and creativity. She had a passion for poetry. She composed over a hundred songs, including the famous "Aloha Oe." She spoke several languages. She dined with presidents, queens and kings. She fought tirelessly for the rights of the Hawaiian people after the illegal takeover of their kingdom. But above all, Lili'uokalani had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. As she wrote in her 1898 autobiography, "Hawai'i's Story by Hawai'i's Queen," "the acquisition of knowledge has been a passion with me during my whole life, one which has not lost its charm to the present day." I imagine that, if she were alive today, Lili'uokalani would feel saddened that two of her greatest passions — her love for the Hawaiian people and her desire for knowledge — should have so much difficulty coexisting on the summit of Mauna Kea. The many amazing discoveries about the universe that are made by the telescopes on the "White Mountain" would surely have fascinated her. And who knows, perhaps as a young girl Lili'uokalani might even have been inspired to pursue a career in astronomy.
As the Makali'i glided across the water, I thought about how we're all explorers of one sort or another. It's part of our human nature. The same curiosity to find out what lies beyond the horizon that inspired the ancient Polynesians to set sail for new lands is what inspires astronomers today to search the heavens to learn about distant worlds across the cosmic ocean.
So why is there so much controversy surrounding Mauna Kea today? Much of the blame belongs to astronomers. For many years, the astronomy community was, through ignorance or arrogance, insensitive to the sanctity of Mauna Kea to some Hawaiians. In their eagerness to build bigger and better telescopes, astronomers forgot that science is just one way of looking at the world, and that we must be respectful of world views that differ from our own. Mauna Kea was a sacred site to the Hawaiian people long before there were ever telescopes there, and so astronomers have a moral obligation to help preserve the dignity of this holy place.
But sensitivity to other cultures is a two-way street. Science, too, is a culture, an ancient one whose roots go back to the dawn of human civilization. Today the science of astronomy transcends race, religion and language. Calls from some Native Hawaiian and environmental groups for the dismantling of telescopes on Mauna Kea or banning future development there are also culturally insensitive because they ignore the kinship astronomers feel with the mountain as they explore the cosmos in what is ultimately a spiritual quest for them, too.
Sure, there will always be some astronomers who view the Hawaiian reverence for Mauna Kea as merely a quaint relic of an ancient belief system that is out of place in the modern world and who believe that astronomers should be allowed to build whatever telescopes they wish on Mauna Kea.
Likewise, there will always be some Native Hawaiians who view the presence of astronomers on Mauna Kea as a very visible example of the continuing occupation of their nation by foreign invaders, and who will settle for nothing less than the removal of all the telescopes and a return of the mountain to its original state.
But between those two extreme views lies the common ground occupied by most of us. There's enough aloha spirit in these Islands to ensure that our keiki, whether of Hawaiian or non-Hawaiian blood, will always feel welcomed on Mauna Kea to worship as they wish, to practice their cultural heritage, and to study the stars. We can't live in the past, consumed by anger or guilt over earlier injustices. As Queen Lili'uokalani said herself, "The world cannot stand still. We must either advance or recede."
As the Makali'i docked in Hilo Bay and we returned to shore, Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians, astronomers and non-astronomers, I thought to myself that if Lili'uokalani were alive today, she'd surely say that there's room for everybody on the summit of Mauna Kea.
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(9)
May 28, 2003, Honolulu Star-Bulletin: University of Hawai’i astronomer wins the internationally prestigious Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists, from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.
http://starbulletin.com/2003/05/28/news/story12.html
Prize for UH astronomer opens international doors
University of Hawaii astronomer J. Patrick Henry will receive a Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Henry, a professor of physics and astronomy, is known for his work on cosmology.
The Humboldt awards recognize the lifelong academic achievement of internationally recognized scholars in all fields in the United States. Nominations are made by eminent German scholars.
As a Humboldt Senior Scientist, Henry will be invited to conduct research projects at German research institutes for up to 12 months. He will receive his award at the Humboldt Foundation's annual meeting in Berlin next month. A reception will be hosted by the president of Germany at his official residence.
Henry will spend the next two summers at the Max Planck Institute in Garching, Germany. He will collaborate with scientists on analysis of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory.
Henry also is a member of the international group planning use of Japan's ASTRO-E2 satellite to be launched in 2005.
Rolf-Peter Kudritzki, director of the Institute for Astronomy, said the award "is one of the most prestigious recognitions of research accomplishments. "I am extremely pleased and proud that one of our faculty has received this award. I look forward to the results of the important collaborative scientific work between Hawaii and Germany made possible in this way."
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