Demonstrators rallied once again late Wednesday night in an effort to prevent a convoy with parts and materials from reaching the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope under construction on the summit of Haleakala.
This time members of Kako‘o Haleakala, the group organizing the protest, and others gathered at two locations on Maui: at the Central Maui Baseyard near Puunene, the anticipated staging area for the shipment, and at Crater Road in Kula, the beginning of the final leg of the journey to the top of the mountain.
More than 50 flag- and sign-waving demonstrators were at the base yard on Mokulele Highway as of 8 p.m., a few hours ahead of the planned convoy launch. They were chanting and marching back and forth across a crosswalk at the entrance of the base yard.
Maui Police Department officers were also on hand Wednesday night.
Twenty demonstrators were arrested July 30 at the base yard in a previous attempt to block an oversize shipment of telescope parts from reaching the summit.
Wednesday was the third time the group has attempted to stop a telescope shipment. A convoy of oversize trucks was halted by demonstrators at the base yard June 24 without any arrests.
Kahele Dukelow, a leader of Kako‘o Haleakala, said group members are asserting their “human rights to prevent further desecration of our Hawaiian sacred sites and national lands.”
The group, she said, is also concerned about protection of the environment and archaeological and cultural sites.
”Hawaiians have never consented to the taking of our Hawaiian national lands and we will continue to protect them,” a post on the group’s Facebook page said Wednesday.
Those arrested in July — including University of Hawaii Maui College Hawaiian studies professors Ki‘ope Raymond and Kaleikoa Kaeo — were charged with multiple offenses, including refusing right of way, failure to disperse and disorderly conduct.
Formerly known as the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, the 14-story Inouye Telescope has been under construction since 2012 and is about 80 percent built at the University of Hawaii’s Science City on the Haleakala summit.
The project, planned for completion in 2019, is expected to be the world’s most powerful solar telescope.
Joseph McMullin, the telescope’s construction manager, previously said: “We respect the rights of anyone to peacefully express themselves and hope that our legal rights will be equally respected.”
McMullin has said his crews have made concerted efforts to prevent cultural and environmental harm associated with the construction and have consulted local officials, Native Hawaiians and other parties throughout the planning process.
“Like those who protest our facility, we too respect and value our planet, the broader universe, and our shared origins. It is our hope that we can work together while respectful of one another’s differences, and mutually revere these gifts from nature,” he said in a statement.
