by Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.

BACKGROUND: Hawaiian sovereignty activists have protested against the University of Hawaii proposal to build a thirty-meter telescope as part of the astronomy campus atop Mauna Kea. One of the major elements of their protest is the claim that Mauna Kea is a sacred place which TMT would desecrate — a claim sincerely believed by some but also asserted falsely for political advantage by many activists who have no religious beliefs or even conflicting beliefs. Several years ago they forcibly blocked the access road to disrupt a blessing ceremony customarily done when beginning a new project. Then in 2019 and 2020 a mob of hundreds of protesters forcibly blocked the access road to prevent construction from beginning, rotating mob members, building permanent tents and other facilities squarely on the road, and placing kupuna (elders) on their front line to dissuade police from enforcing the law. A timid, fearful, politically correct governor and mayor tolerated the year-long blockade until the COVID-19 virus forced everyone to go home.

The TMT project, like other observatories that have operated for decades, is funded by a consortium including universities on the mainland and around the world. The activists have sent their leaders to meet with the regents or boards of directors of some of those institutions to lobby them to withdraw from the project, thus undercutting its financial base. In response the University of California Board of Regents held hearings over the internet with livestreaming, and invited public testimony by telephone (to avoid infection from the COVID-19 virus). Below is Ken Conklin’s time-limited testimony from Wednesday September 16, 2020.

Aloha kakou,

‘O Ken Conklin keia mai ke ahupua’a ‘o He’eia, Ko’olaupoko, O’ahu, Hawaii.

I am Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D., a retired professor of Philosophy.
I have lived in Kane’ohe for 28 years, have studied Hawaiian history and the ancient religion in depth, and speak Hawaiian with moderate fluency.

Some ethnic Hawaiians oppose the TMT project because they claim Mauna Kea is a sacred place, and TMT would be a desecration of of it.

Here are three reasons why that claim should be rejected:

1. Most ethnic Hawaiians today are Christians. The real disrespect of ancestors and desecration of the ancient religion comes at the hands of ethnic Hawaiians who today abuse it as a mere pawn in their political chess game. The four primary native Hawaiian leaders, exercising self- determination on behalf of their people, officially abolished their old religion in 1819, when Kamehameha died, the year BEFORE the Christian missionaries arrived. They were King Liholiho Kamehameha II; Keopuolani who was Kamehameha’s sacred wife and mother of the next two Kings; Ka’ahumanu who was Kamehameha’s favorite wife and acted as co-ruler with Liholiho; and Kahuna Nui (High Priest) Hewahewa. They abolished the old religion by publicly violating an important taboo at a large banquet and then ordering the heiaus (stone temples) and wooden idols to be destroyed throughout all the islands. Today’s ethnic Hawaiians are welcome to invent any religion they wish; but cannot claim the old religion remains authoritative.

2. According to the most widely-recognized creation legend from the old religion, the goddess who gave birth to Haloa, the primordial ancestor from whom all ethnic Hawaiians are descended, was Ho’ohokukalani . Her name literally means “She who placed the stars into the heavens.” She gave birth to Haloa on Mauna Kea. Therefore Mauna Kea is exactly the right place where mother goddess Ho’ohokukalani should be worshipped by her descendants. Telescopes are today’s implements whereby Hawaiians today can worship their primordial goddess Mother who placed the stars into the heavens.

3. It would be unconstitutional for any governmental agency, including the Board of Regents, to adopt a religion as the basis for making laws or regulations. The First Amendment to our Constitution commands that there shall be “no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Neither the U.S. nor State of Hawaii nor State of California nor Board of Regents is allowed to elevate the ancient Hawaiian religion, nor any ersatz reinvented version of it, as the authority for making government decisions. No matter how much you may respect the ancient religion, no matter how much you may admire the modern people who reinvent that religion as a basis for their own political activism, you must ignore that religion when setting government policy for the shared use of Mauna Kea by all the people of our multiracial society.