Kanaka Maoli, the indigenous people of Hawaii, are in a battle to protect the summit of Mauna Kea, which holds great cultural, social, and religious importance.
The summit has been developed by projects such as scientific observatories and telescopes and the road infrastructure needed to service them.
Kahea, a Hawaiian environmental organisation, says development has left the fragile ecosystems of the summit desecrated and destroyed.
On 14 July Kahea and other opponents of the planned Thirty Meter Telescope including Ziibiing Lab, a University of Toronto research group; and the Transnational Law and Racial Justice Network, a University of Windsor law network that focuses on how Canadian law impacts people's lives internationally, submitted a petition to the United Nations arguing the telescope violates Indigenous rights.
There are already 21 telescopes and 13 observatories on Mauna Kea's summit.
Uahikea Maile, a Kanaka Maoli political science professor who runs the Ziibiing Lab, told Canada's National Observer that the proposed site of the Thirty Meter Telescope is on the mountain's culturally significant northern plateau, which remains pristine and undeveloped.
"Enough is enough," Mr Maile said.
The petition was launched on the fourth anniversary of a Native Hawaiian blockade of the telescope's construction.
In 2019 Mr Maile joined the blockade at which 38 Elders were arrested. He said the state spent US$11million bringing police from across Hawaii to the blockade to engage in "criminalising Native Hawaiians standing up for their sacred mountain, and their relationships (to Mauna Kea)".
The petitioners allege that following the blockade, Indigenous land defenders, including members of Kahea, were monitored and investigated for financially supporting the blockade.
The petition to the United Nations is scathing of Canadian corporations and astronomy organisations set to construct the proposed telescope, which would be the second-largest in the world if built.
The petition was also critical of Canada's National Research Council, and has asked the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to urge Canadian stakeholders to divest from the telescope project.
Organisations based in the United States, China, India and Japan also have stakes in the project.
Actor Jason Momoa addresses Elders as he visits protesters blocking the construction of a giant telescope on Mauna Kea in 2019. Image: Cindy Ellen Russell (Honolulu Star-Advertiser / AP)
In 2021, professional and academic astronomy organisations issued a statement in which they said they would only support the project with Kanaka Maoli consent, but the petition to the UN notes they are yet to withdraw funding or support.
Mr Maile told Canada's National Observer that nothing has changed since the blockade.
"(That) infuriates me… But the truth of the matter is I'm not surprised because this is a project that these folks want at all costs," he said.
"On the ground, the truth of the matter is socially, the opposition is deep and widespread."
Dr Robert P. Krishner, executive director of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) International Observatory, the non-profit organisation developing the project, said in a statement this month that: "Through discussions, the people of Hawaii and the Native Hawaiian community will decide whether TMT goes forward on Mauna Kea."
