Community input is integral to the future of astronomy on Maunakea. We invite you to learn, make your voice heard, and participate in the policy and decision-making process that will shape our collective future with respect to Maunakea and beyond.

ENGAGE

URGENT: Continue Funding Our Future

Astronomy on Maunakea produces world-class discoveries, serves as an economic driver on Hawaiʻi Island, and offers learning opportunities to local students across the state.

Last year the presidential budget proposed cuts that would have far-reaching effects, not only on astronomy but also on biological sciences, Earth and planetary science, climate and environmental monitoring, STEM education, technology innovation, and the communities that participate in and benefit from these activities. Even though Congress rejected these cuts for FY2026 and fully funded science, the administration is proposing the same drastic cuts for FY2027.

We need Congress to continue to stand firm in valuing and funding science so NSF and NASA can continue to support our work here in Hawaiʻi. It is time for us to actively work with our Congressional delegation again to maintain US leadership in research and innovation.

How to Help

Hearing from constituents helps our congressional delegation effectively advocate for continued funding that will support NSF, NASA, and astronomy in Hawaiʻi.

Click here to send a message to Senator Schatz.
Click here to send a message to Senator Hirono.
Click here to send a message to Representative Case.
Click here to send a message to Representative Tokuda.

Educate your friends and family so they may contact their congressional representatives too!

Our Positions

We advocate for policies that affirm mutual responsibility for the mauna and respect all members of our community with the understanding that relationships – with land and each other – are core to mutual stewardship and are fundamentally intertwined. With this grounding in local place, culture, and community, we support knowledge sharing that furthers scientific discovery; integrates multiple ways of knowing that can inform and inspire each other; and creates genuine reciprocity between Hawaiʻi and the world.

As governance of Maunakea transitions to the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, our joint statement articulates our current positions and acknowledges the privilege of conducting science on Maunakea.

The Maunakea Observatories (MKO) jointly acknowledge the evolution of governance for Maunakea to a model of mutual stewardship, centering the Mauna above all. We support the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority (MKSOA) as it develops this model of governance, and likewise have chosen to embrace evolution within our institutions. Over the last decade, many important changes in the MKO’s collective objectives and priorities have taken place. Some of these changes have been widely visible, while others have been less public. We wish to make these objectives, priorities and commitments clear to the MKSOA, to our elected and appointed officials, and to our broader community. Click here to learn more.
We align with Astro2020 Decadal Survey recommendations and opportunities for us as a field to deepen the ongoing conversation about how to improve ourselves, our institutions, and the ways we interact with our communities. Among these goals is further development of partnerships with indigenous and local communities “that learn from past mistakes and frame a pathway for a more equitable and collaborative future together for the benefit of all,” a goal we wholeheartedly support.
We acknowledge our institutions' past shortcomings in inclusion, diversity, equity, and the kind of reciprocity foundational to our future. We are committed to becoming institutions where local talent thrives and is supported in top leadership roles, empowered to make decisions that will shape the future of global astronomy. The national and international astronomy community recognizes the huge potential and significance of science done in Hawaiʻi, and on Maunakea in particular. We are fully supportive of values and community-based astronomy that reflects and includes the lands and community from which discoveries are made.
It is important to emphasize that Congress sets the budget, and we, as constituents have the opportunity to advocate for policies that will support scientific discovery, cultural responsibility, and economic prosperity in our community. MKO partnerships with NSF snd NASA have kept Hawai’i on the cutting edge of discovery. We urge Congress to pass a budget that will maintain not only the world-leading transformational astronomy, but also the mutual stewardship work that is happening on Maunakea.