A History of TMT and Beyond

The tale of TMT dates back a decade, but our struggles stretch back long before the protests of today. This story will start with now and retrace our steps, deconstruct the history and try to understand how we got here today.

July 2019 
Hawai’i Governor David Ige announces that construction will finally begin on TMT, five years after its groundbreaking and almost a full decade after its initial proposal. Kia’i rush to Mauna Kea, blocking the roads and halting construction. The National Guard begins arresting people; our kūpuna, our elders, put their bodies on the line first. This act spurs headlines and protests around the country. Native Hawaiians, spread throughout the world, react to a deeply felt connection to the ‘āina, to their land. Mauna Kea becomes a symbol for resistance, for reclamation, for reconnection, for revolution. It becomes a symbol for Hawai’i.
 
October 7, 2014
The groundbreaking ceremony for TMT is interrupted by kia’i. Over the next year, they will continue to demonstrate and push back, sparking years of resistance in the courts. There are headlines and there is outrage, but the issue remains relatively local. The following December, the Supreme Court of Hawai’i invalidates TMT building permits due to failure to follow due process. The issue falls quiet again, only to resurface when revised permits are accepted just three years later despite remaining unaddressed environmental concerns that the cumulative effect of the telescopes will be “substantial, significant and adverse.”
 
July 21, 2009
Mauna Kea is announced as the preferred site for TMT. The telescope is set to be one of the largest in the world, reaching 18 stories tall with two stories underground and amassing a five-acre footprint. If built on Mauna Kea, it will be the 14th telescope and join the 22 existing structures. When this decision is defended in court five years later, they will call it “incremental degradation.” They will say that there are so many telescopes already, another couldn’t hurt. They discuss six other potential sites for TMT, but Mauna Kea seems to be the most convenient for astronomers.
 
1964
Famed Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kupier proposes the first telescope on Mauna Kea. The height, low humidity and lack of light pollution mark its astronomical potential. He introduces the idea to NASA, but the project is instead awarded to John Jefferies at the University of Hawaii. UH begins a 65-year lease with the state that costs only $1 annually, despite Mauna Kea residing on ceded Hawaiian land meant for public purposes and the “betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians.” For years after, Kupier still feels entitled to the land and will tell people that Jefferies had “stolen Mauna Kea from him.”
 
1893
Culminating after years of foreign interference in the Hawaiian government, a coup is set in motion. ‘Iolani Palace is stormed, Queen Lili’uokalani is imprisoned and Sanford Dole declares himself president. U.S. President Grover Cleveland recognizes the illegality of the coup and uses the State of the Union to declare that “the only honorable course for our Government to pursue was to undo the wrong that had been done by those representing us.” Dole, however, refuses to reinstate the Queen. After President Cleveland leaves office, Hawai’i is annexed by a Congressional resolution. A century later, Congress will issue an apology, admitting that this was an illegal annexation done “without the consent of or compensation to the Native Hawaiian people of Hawaii or their sovereign government.” This does not change the fact that the Kingdom of Hawai’i was overthrown by the United States.
 
1874 
The reign of King Kalākaua begins. He is an optimist, proud of his people, and wants to introduce Hawaiiana across the world. He becomes the first reigning monarch to circumnavigate the globe and the first to visit the White House. Kalākaua invites British astronomers to Hawai’i to observe the transit of Venus; he dreams of eventually building an observatory. George Tupman, a captain in the Royal Marine Artillery, refers to the royal family as “savages.”
 
1777
It’s a year after American independence is declared in the colonies and a year before James Cook lands on Hawai’i; the Hawaiian Islands are still unknown to the outside world. ‘Ōlelo, the Hawaiian language, is not yet written. Our stories are still told through chant and hula, memorized and passed down for so long that no one can imagine anything different. Some can recite over 2000 lines of the Kumulipo, the creation chant, and detail the birth of the dark, the light, the ocean, the sky, the land, the coral, the creatures, the gods and man. The Kumulipo tells us that the gods dwell atop Mauna a Wakea — the highest point on the islands, where the Sky separated from the Earth, and the tie to Creation itself. Decades later, Queen Lili’uokalani will translate the Kumulipo while imprisoned in ‘Iolani Palace. In her introduction, she laments that she cannot properly translate the true significance as it pertains to “the heavens, the stars, terrestrial science and the gods.” The words have more meaning and nuance than when translated into English. After all, “the ancient Hawaiians were astronomers.”