Hawaiians pushing back

Some Native Hawaiians are objecting to US President Joe Biden’s choice for US attorney for the state, saying Clare Connors treated dozens of their elders like criminals when her office prosecuted them for blocking a road while protesting the construction of a mountaintop telescope. Native Hawaiians who believe the summit of Mauna Kea is sacred say building the US$2.4 billion (NZ$3.35b) Thirty Metre Telescope on the state’s tallest mountain would further desecrate a sacred place already defiled by a dozen other observatories. Protesters began camping out on and near the lone road to the summit in July 2019. The 38 elders prosecuted for obstruction were aged from their 60s to 80s, and many are community leaders. Protest leader Kealoha Pisciotta said Connors ‘‘doesn’t have to seem to have the compassion or the aloha that is needed’’.