Although astronomy has recently been the focus on Maunakea, it’s time now to bring our Hawaiian culture and traditions, and our reverence for the mountain, to the forefront.
Maunakea — just like the voyaging canoe Hokule‘a and the Merrie Monarch hula competition — belongs to the Hawaiian people. It’s time we Hawaiians have a robust and significant presence on the mountain.
We can do that by creating a cultural center that shows who we Hawaiians have always been and still are, and that proclaims our value system. We can put this cultural center mid-level on Maunakea, where there is controlled and safe access. Our Hawaiian cultural experts and language speakers, present and future, can set its agenda.
Our cultural center would provide a central point for us to gather and practice our language, traditions, culture, and crafts. It would be a space where we remind visitors about respect, responsibility, and sensitivity for place. At this cultural center, we can set a precedent that the rest of the world can learn from.
We can focus on moving forward, like the explorers we Hawaiians have always been, and our next generations of Hawaiian language and culture students can help shape that future we are moving toward.
What would it look like? The sky’s the limit. Perhaps visitors to Maunakea would board a tramway that carries them up to the cultural center. That would let us control traffic on our mountain, for both environmental and public safety reasons. Visitors could take in a panoramic view while listening to a cultural specialist speak about the cultural heritage of Hawaiians and the significance of our highest mountain.
Maybe they pay a fee set by the center’s administration, which supports the center’s staff, buildings, roads and educational opportunities, especially for the island’s public education students. Maybe the cable could generate electricity on its way back down.
Perhaps those who want to visit more sensitive, restricted areas of the mountain would first spend two hours helping — by pulling invasive weeds, or planting and tending native plants, or in some other way — in exchange for a pass.
These are only ideas. There is room for others’ ideas, as well. The center itself could support research as well as hands-on activities (think San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum) that teach about Hawaiian culture, astronomy, biology, geology, conservation, crafts and more.
Right now our island’s economy depends heavily on tourism, but it’s time to start turning our economy away from primarily sand and surf, and toward issues of sustainability and environmentalism.
Our cultural center could be the moral authority for aloha and sustainability on the mountain.
Without a robust presence on Maunakea, we are giving up an opportunity to care for our mountain as we see fit, to come together from around the island and honor our culture and traditions, and to teach others about the sustainability of a sacred place and culture.
Richard Ha submitted this on behalf of fellow PUEO board members Keahi Warfield, Kalepa Baybayan and Keith “Bruddah Skibs” Nehls.
