The struggle for access to Mauna Kea continued Thursday during a hearing in Judge Ronald Ibarra’s Environmental Court in Kailua-Kona.
The case is a challenge to the emergency rules preventing people from being on the access road or within one mile of either side from 10 p.m.-4 a.m. and prevents camping supplies being used in the area.
Thursday’s court proceedings ran from noon until shortly before 5 p.m. as both sides called witnesses and introduced evidence.
The first witness was Kalani Flores, an assistant professor of Hawaii life styles at Hawaii Community College and a Native Hawaiian.
He wanted to expand “the understanding that the mountain is a sacred temple,” he said. That comes from generations of communion with ancestors, ancestral guides and divine beings.
Communion with family members, ancestors and guides, sometimes includes directions and to which rituals to perform, when to do so and where they must be done.
“The practices are site-specific,” he said, including on Mauna Kea.
These can be at places built by their ancestors or places that believers are guided to, he said. The process up the mountain includes stops to blow the shell horn, give prayers and ask for permission to continue.
“This is like a basic foundation of Hawaiian common practice — asking permission, giving your intentions and giving gratitude,” he said.
For Hawaiians, the equinox and solstices are especially important, said Clarence Ching, a Native Hawaiian and resident of Waimea. He said he has visited the mountain often as part of his spiritual, emotional and religious life.
One ritual is performed to welcome the sun arriving, Ching said. To do that, his group will leave Hilo at 10 p.m., making its way across the island and up the mountain to be at the summit before sunrise, often well before 4 a.m.
“I’m hoping to (walk) this next month, at equinox time,” he said
Not being able to be on Mauna Kea on an equinox would be like a Christian not being able to attend a sunrise Easter service, Flores said.
The next equinox is Sept. 22, which Ibarra acknowledged as a concern in the speed of the case.
Chief Ranger Paul “Scotty” Paiva said he was concerned by how many people are now near the road, which is twisted, studded with blind corners and slick. He’s seen children playing in the road, people sitting in lawn chairs with their feet on the pavement and campers near the roadway. With the risk of brake failure on a descending vehicle, any of those people could be struck, he said.
Environmental safety also is a concern, he said. The coconuts, bananas and other plant matter brought to the summit could bring invasive species up to the area, he said. That risk was confronted once, when the bamboo used to build a structure was found with ants in it.
The state focused on the safety concerns caused by the recent protest, particularly the rocks moved on to the road and the building of walls. Walls were reconstructed after Paiva and several officers went up to get everyone off the summit.
The attorneys have until the close of business Aug. 28 to submit materials. It is unknown when there will be further action.
