From the Frontlines of Protecting Mauna Kea: Pualani Case, Kapulei Flores, and Jalena Keane-Lee

Pualani Case discusses her efforts to protect sacred Mauna Kea from further desecration by the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). A short film titled, Standing Above the Clouds, that speaks of the different families involved will frame the discussion.

Filmmaker Jalena Keane-Lee and Case’s daughter Kapulei Flores join the conversation.

Standing Above the Clouds is a story of inter-generational women activists, who call themselves Aloha ʻĀina, or warriors of the land. The mothers and daughters find themselves standing with many others at the forefront of the Indigenous movement to safeguard their sacred mountain, Mauna a Wakea, when a construction permit is granted for an eighteen story, Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) to be built directly below the summit on pristine, untouched land. The film explores the relationships between Native Hawaiian mothers and daughters as they go from standing in ceremony to standing on the mountain and in the courtroom.