Tongan community members in Hawai’i arrived at Mauna Kea today with traditional gifts to show support and aloha/’ofa for the Kānaka Maoli (native Hawaiian people), who strongly oppose plans to build a thirty-metre telescope (TMT) atop Hawaii’s highest mountain which is considered sacred land.
Last week, police arrested 33 native Hawaiian elders (kupuna) for peacefully blocking the mountain’s access road to stop the $US1.4 billion projects from going ahead.
The Tongan delegation held a prayer service before presenting traditional kava, sugarcane, Tonga tapa cloths and mats to the Native Hawaiian elders and the 2,000 plus activists who have camped at the base of Mauna Kea.
Polynesian movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is also calling for resolution to the conflict as he joined the activists today.
