by MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (AP) – Shane Palacat-Nelsen’s voice drops to a reverent tone as he tells the story of the snow goddess Poliahu believed by Native Hawaiians to live at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s highest point.
The story tells of a chief who wanted to go to the Poliahu court but was stopped by his attendants protecting the sacred mountain top — the abode of the gods and the cradle of creation.
Today, this sublime summit on the Big Island of Hawaii is also treasured by astronomers as a gateway to answers to many mysteries of the universe, creating different – and sometimes incompatible – views on what is best for your future. Mauna Kea.
The chief executive was eventually granted access on the condition that he only stand on the same set of feet left by the attendant escorting him up and down, Palacat-Nelsen said. He says it is a metaphor for why Mauna Kea must be protected from further human interference, pollution and erosion.
“You don’t go up the holy mountain unless you are called. You don’t go up for no reason.”
Mauna Kea is a 14,000-foot-tall dormant volcano. In Native Hawaiian lore, he is the firstborn son of sky father and earth mother. The mountain’s dry atmosphere and limited light pollution create a perfect location for studying the skies – one of only a handful on the planet.
Over the past 50 years, astronomers have mounted a dozen giant telescopes on the summit, with some uplifting discoveries, such as proving that the Milky Way has a supermassive black hole at its center. That research won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020.
The proliferation of observatories worried many Native Hawaiians, who pushed back. According to them, such construction is polluting the sacred mountain top and eroding the environment. In 2019, thousands protested the proposed $2.65 billion Thirty Meter Telescope project near the summit. This protest prompted the passage of a new state law that transfers jurisdiction over the mountain to a new oversight authority that includes scientists and Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners.
Neither side wants to reduce this debate to a culture versus science conflict because Hawaiian spirituality encompasses science, and many astrologers respect Hawaiian culture. Some observatory staff and cultural practitioners are taking small tentative steps towards a new dialogue, but overcoming the divide will require difficult conversations and an understanding of different perspectives.
Mauna Kea’s summit rises 13,796 feet (4,205 meters) above sea level, evoking an ethereal feeling as the fluffy clouds roll in with their cinder cones and coat its reddish, almost Mars-like soil. On a clear day, Mauna Loa, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, is visible.
Climbing Mauna Kea is like peeling layers of an onion, says longtime activist Kealoha Pisciotta. There are ceremonial platforms, ancestral burial sites and the waters of Hawaii’s lone alpine lake, which is believed to have healing properties.
“The higher you go, the closer your heart is to the heavens,” she says, adding that construction and demolition near the summit threaten people’s sacred connection to the land.
Palacat-Nelsen, who was on the working group that laid the foundation for the new authority, says that in order to protect the mountain and preserve the sanctity of the summit, people must be ready to have uncomfortable conversations.
John O’Meara, who moved to Hawaii to become Keck’s chief scientist shortly before the 2019 protest, is now a key player in that dialogue. He is learning about the strong connection many Native Hawaiians have with Mauna Kea, and is interested in the parallels between spirituality and astrology.
“We’re basically asking the same questions, which are: Where are we? Where did we come? And where are we going? There is a deep connection with the universe… that’s what we should be aiming for,” he said.
Doug Simons, director of the University of Hawaii’s Astronomy Institute, points to the opening lines of the Kumulipo, a centuries-old Hawaiian creation song that describes a scene eerily similar to what astronomers believe existed during the Big Bang.
The Kumulipo’s description of a dark, eternal form of energy from which everything emanates sounds to Simons like dark energy, which astronomers believe predates the universe. The Mauna Kea telescope is at the forefront of discoveries about dark energy, Simons said.
Lanakila Mangauil, a Native Hawaiian spiritual practitioner, was about 9 when he first went up the mountain for snow play at lower elevations. His family never went to the summit.
“One of the important spiritual practices on Mauna Kea is our absence,” he said. “We stay off it because it’s sacred.”
Mangauil does not like to use the word “religion” to describe his spiritual practice. Hawaiians do not have a central religion, he said, but spiritual practices born from different communities, families and environments.
Mauna Kea is not sacred in the religious sense to all Hawaiians, including Makana Silva, an astrologer who grew up on Oahu and was raised Catholic. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and visited the summit of Mauna Kea for the first time three years ago. He believes that astronomy should thrive on the mountain so the Hawaiians have a place to perpetuate their legacy of innovation.
The Mauna Kea Authority and Mauna Kea Stewardship, which is managing the mountain from the University of Hawaii, will largely determine the future of astronomy on the mountain. Astronomers like Simons worry that if the 65-year lease for the summit lands expires as scheduled in 2033, astronomy in Hawaii could be over. Simons says that would be “catastrophic” and hurt the aspirations of young Hawaiian astronomers.
Palacat-Nelsen doesn’t believe summit astronomy will end anytime soon. But he sees the lease being renewed at a higher price than the $1 a year the University of Hawaii now pays.
He hopes that there will be a better understanding between the two communities. He recently invited several Keck astronomers and officials to his family’s “heiau” or place of worship on the Big Island. It affected Rich Matsuda, Keck’s interim director, who said the experience showed the extensive preparation required to enter a sacred space, such as leaving one’s everyday troubles outside. He has since followed similar protocols when traveling to the summit and believes they could be shared more widely with other telescope operators.
Palacat-Nelsen said such efforts by observatories give him hope that people will become more vigilant in their search for Mauna Kea. He is grateful to his ancestors for preserving Mauna Kea so that current generations will have the opportunity to experience the divine. He asks if he can do that for the future.
“Can they talk about me that way 200 years from now?” he asks. “I hope.”
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Associated Press religion coverage is supported by the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this matter.
