Kū mai ka hale kūpa‘a

Two thousands days of this current stand for Mauna Kea. From 2015 until now, the mountain has called upon Hawai‘inuiākea to the Honuanuiākea, to remember the sacred commitments we have to our connection to the land from the tallest mountains to the deepest of seas. Two thousand days of coming home to ourselves and our collective ancestral kuleana we each have to one another and to the balance of life. Two thousands days of learning what sacred community and sacred unity means in the name of reclaiming dignity for our selves, our homelands, and every ancestor we descend from who made sure they lived their lives remembering the ways of our people so that one day we could too. Two thousand days of calling upon ancient legions of the spiritual realms, nā kini, nā lehu, nā mano - the 40, the 400, 4,000, 40,000, and 400,000 to protect us as we protect our sacred Mauna from the building of the Thirty Meter Telescope. Two thousand days of doing everything we can as a family to show up, stand up, and speak up for the justice we hope for and work to see - it has never stopped for us, no breaks - two contested case hearings, two Supreme Court hearings, countless BLNR meetings, three frontlines, many testimonies, many travels to the far reaches of the world to connect in solidarity, many ceremonies, many classrooms, many workshops, many tears, many heartaches, and many moments of joy. I don’t think a day has gone by that we haven’t said the name Mauna Kea to the sky and to one another. So today, I lift up the members of my ‘Ohana - from my Grandparents, Aunties, and cousins to Uncle Kalani, my mother Pualani Case and my sister Kapulei Flores - we all have stood together and will continue to stand together for Mauna a Wākea for the next two thousand and the two thousand after that, for as long as it takes. I am proud and honored to have been born into a family of aloha ‘āina. To our ancestor ‘Umihulumakaokalanikia’imaunaoawini, the one who inspired the name Kū Kia‘i Mauna, I bow to the land and to the mountains in your honor. We stand as kia’i of mountains because you did. Your legacy lives on in us and will live on in the ones to come.

Kū mai ka hale kūpa‘a!