,
8 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
Alright ya’ll it’s time to catch up on the #ThirtyMeterTelescope & #ProtectMaunaKea situation: Mauna Kae is a dormant volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island. For indigenous Hawaiians it’s a sacred site. Building telescopes on sacred sites is bad. They should not do it. You’re caught up.
Could we learn some incredible things from this? Yeah! Is this view shared by /every/ indigenous Hawaiian? Nope. Does that change the reality that this is a bad move on behalf of science? NOPE.
I love science. Gosh I hope that’s been clear to you before this moment. But I can still readily see that this field can be hugely problematic. One way is our sense of entitlement to land, artifacts, etc., in the name of scientific progress.
We have a bad habit of steamrolling the knowledge, values, and cultural identities of indigenous peoples across the world in the name of scientific pursuits. This is colonialism. It’s not okay.
It’s not okay to see that indigenous elders are putting their bodies on the line and getting arrested (33 yesterday) because #TMT is such a threat to their sacred site, and respond by saying “but science!!!”
There’s still the choice to right this ship. To accept the tough work of finding a new location. To appreciate that doing so is well within our capabilities as humans and scientists.
I urge #tmt supporters to recognize this opportunity for another kind of progress. One that may seem “small” in the scale of the universe but is essential to our humanity. We have to opportunity here to listen. To show respect. To decolonize. Please take it. #ProtectMaunaKea
If you want to follow what’s going on there, my friend, Mikey Inouye (@karaokecomputer), is a filmmaker based in HI and has been documenting scenes of the #ProtectMaunaKea protests.
