Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 6, 1 June 2009 — Kanaka Maoli should welcome telescopes. Kalākaua did. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kanaka Maoli should welcome telescopes. Kalākaua did.

Iam in favor, as a Kanaka Maoli and an astrophysicist, of building the | Advanced Technology Solar i Telescope on Haleakalā. i Astronomy is an integral part

i of our culture. Every Kanaka i Maoli has original ancestors who i eame here on a eanoe, whieh was led i by a kahuna who knew kilo

i hōkū, or astronomy. Queen | Lili'uokalani said it best, i "The ancient Hawaiians were ; astronomers." We may have i lost sight of that fact. A halanee between culture i and science is seen in the life ; of Kalākaua Ali'i. He brought i hula back into the mainstream | and we honor him annually i with the Merrie Monarch

; Festival. But don't forget, he also i brought telescopes to Hawai'i and ; invited astronomers to eome here as i part of an intemational effort to mea- ; sure the distance from the Earth to i the sun. Kalākaua addressed those astroni omers in 1874: "It will afford me ; unfeigned satisfaction if my kingdom i ean add its quota toward the suc- ; cessful accomplishment of the most i important astronomical observation ; of the present century and assist, i however humbly, the enlightened ; nations of the Earth in these costly i enterprises..." He brought Hawai'i into the i modern age by introducing elee- ; tricity, telephones, etc„ and bought i telescopes. He would certainly be in ; favor of getting the best solar telei scope in the world for Haleakalā. Perhaps he would also be disi mayed, as I am, at how few Kanaka ; Maoli are involved in astronomy. He i might try to prepare our people for ; future jobs, just as he did with his i "Students Abroad" program where

he sent Kanaka Maoli to various countries to learn about modern scienee and bring that knowl-

edge back to Hawai'i. If he were king now, this discussion would not be happening. Rather, we would be discussing how we could fasttrack our students to be in a position to run the astronomy effort in Hawai'i. When I see telescopes on our mountains, I'm proud that we are participatins in

the noble human pursuit of understanding the universe. But I also know we are wasting this opportunity to reconnect with an important part of our cultural past - one whieh could take our children into the future. Haleakalā has the best combination of seeing, sunshine hours and sky clarity of any of the sites investigated for ATST. What better plaee to observe the sun than the "House of the Sun"? Māui slowed the sun so that Hina could dry her kapa. Instead of breaking the legs of Lā, we will use the ATST to understand how those "legs" work. This unique telescope will be able to investigate magnetic activity and variabihty to a degree not possible with ciurent telescopes. Only the best for our sacred mountain - this is the best! Let's get our keiki involved! ■

Paul Coleman, a Nati.ve Hawaiian, i.s an associ.ate astronomer at the University of Hawai'i. Institute for Astronomy.

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By Paul Culeman