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The movement that began five years ago to save Maunakea from the installation of another telescope, one that was projected to cost at least $3 billion, inspired University of Hawaii Maui College's educator Keola Donaghy to chronicle the movement's impact on Hawaii's musicians.
His fascinating new book, "Mele on the Mauna" explores how music, and especially haku mele, Hawaiian language composers, played a crucial role in this defense.
Musicians flocked to the mauna (mountain) to perform for the kia'i (protectors) and a global audience via social media. Haku mele created new songs at unprecedented levels, releasing many commercially with proceeds benefiting organizations providing support services and supplies to the protectors, seeking to prevent the construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT).
"We all knew about the protests and opposition to the TMT being built and were watching on streaming services," says Donaghy. "I couldn't believe what was happening when the arrests went down. I was in Hilo for 18 years, and quite a few of the folks on the line that got arrested were friends, one former student, former teachers. I was really just aghast at what was going on."
An Associate Professor of Music at the Institute of Hawaiian Music and 6-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner as producer of Institute compilation albums and as a member of the group A'ea'e, he began researching the role of music in inspiring the movement.
"Musicians began this pilgrimage to the mauna to play for the people encamped up there. A lot of folks, including good friends, had begun to compose new mele for the mauna, like Kainani Kahaunaele, Anuenue Punua, Chad Takatsugi, Zach Lum. They were putting out a call, people start writing great music for the mauna. I did myself. I composed "Lei Ana Maunakea I Ke Aloha 'Oia'i'o," that my former colleague, Leihuanani Keali'inohomoku recorded. I watched this explosion of creativity of new mele being composed, and thought, this is something that's really worth documenting."
Maui musicians quoted in the book include Kumu Hula Hokulani Holt and Keali'i Reichel, along with Josh Tatofi.
"I began talking to people about their feelings about what was going on, and what inspired them to write and how their personal connections to Maunakea played into what they were writing," he continues. "I began formally interviewing folks a few months after the arrests in July of 2019, and had the idea this is valuable. It's probably going to end up in a book, but I had no clue at the time what that was going to look like."
Chapters include "Lohe 'Ia Mai 'O A '): The Soundscapes Of The Mauna," "Kapu Aloha: Embodied, Composed, and Performed," "Kolo Ke Ewe I Ke Ewe: Rootlets Seek Out Other Rootlets," and "Paio No Ka Pono E: Music and 'Conflict."
Among the subjects Donaghy covers in the book, he examines the significant role played by the Hawaiian concept of kapu aloha. "It's really hard to put into words," he says. "It's an expression of aloha that involves self-discipline, and regulating yourself, controlling your reactions to violence and aggression that is coming your way. Folks that have taught me Hawaiian composition, taught me to avoid negativity of any kind in mele, because they're forever. The situation that caused your ill feelings about something eventually may go away, but the song will remain. So I noticed how so many of the mele, and I was focusing on the Hawaiian language ones, none of them really contained any kind of derisive language towards the governor, or university officials, or the police. It was all about uplifting, praising Maunakea for its significance and genealogical connections with the kia'i, and their standing steadfast for it. The kind of themes that were coming through in these mele can be found in the mele that were written even during the era of the occupation of Kaho'olawe, and the attempts to return it. Also at the time of the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom and the subsequent years. So there are a lot of parallels and the role that mele played in that really echoed through all the years."
Conducting more than 30 interviews with those who participated in musical activities connected with the movement, he says, "one of the things that jumped out, that emerged from all the discussions was the importance of silence. It wasn't all about the music, but the way that the kia'i strategically used silence, and how that is so tied into not only Hawaiian culture, but throughout the Pacific. The appreciation of the importance of silence, and mandating it at particular times for a certain purpose. That's also tied heavily into kapu aloha, of not fighting fire with fire. It reminded me of those images from the '60s, of military pointing guns at people and a woman putting a flower in the gun. It kind of felt like that in an oral form. You can be yelling and threatening and we just return nothing but aloha. There were times when people were challenged, but by and large, the ability of those folks to maintain their kapu aloha and their refusal to engage, either verbally or through violence was simply tremendous."
In terms of hope for his book, Donaghy says, "I hope people on either side can appreciate how this kind of situation, out of what was near chaos at times, that beautiful art can be created. Folks that were composing all these mele were saying beauty can come out of all this."
Keola Donaghy will talk about "Mele On The Mauna" on Sept. 18 at 6 p.m. at U. H. Maui College's 'Ike Le'a Building Room 144. He will also talk at the Hawai'i Book and Music Festival on Sept. 15, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Kenneth Makuakane, Sandy Essman, and Gerard K. Gonsalves will join him for performances of mele for the mauna.