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I support the good work the Office of Mauna Kea Management has done over the years. However, no matter which entity takes over, the University of Hawaii or a new management authority, it’s time to think past the Hale Pohaku footprint.

More and more people are visiting Mauna Kea since Saddle Road was improved, but UH does not control enough land to separate visitor issues from the more hardcore mission of the .

The people working at Maunakea Shared Services are doing a good job with the resources available to them. But they are expected to fulfill their mission on an inadequate 20 acres of land that must also accommodate growing numbers of visitors. It’s a systemic problem that can only be solved when people recognize it.

We need land where we can build a “cultural center above the clouds.” It would separate cultural needs from the support services mission and also help solve a huge safety issue.

Not, though, if we try to squeeze a culture center onto a too-small property. That’s not how to solve a problem for the next 50 or more years.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources controls an area adjacent to and west of Hale Pohaku that we’ve identified as a site for a significant cultural center above the clouds.

It would be a pipeline for the University of Hawaii Hilo’s Hawaiian language school, where its graduates can work, conduct research, create, and sell their crafts and other products to visitors. We’d no longer need to buy non-Hawaiian items from outside the state to resell.

The Visitor Information Station already generates $1 million in sales every year without trying. Imagine if we tried.

We could orient the cultural center so it faces west toward the beautiful sunsets. People have to stop at the 9,000-foot level to acclimate to the altitude anyway.

‘A Significant Facility’

The already knows how to create a cultural center, so we wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel. This new, significant facility would be Imiloa Mauka and the one in Hilo, Imiloa Makai.

We need a place of pride where our culture-related work is ongoing and will not be forgotten. My grandma was pure Hawaiian, but two generations later, I am one-quarter Hawaiian and no one would point me out as likely to be Hawaiian. What will happen to the 1/64th Hawaiians?

As more and more of our young people speak Hawaiian, pressure will build. Young people need something to look toward to, a place they can be proud of, or there will be constant conflict.

Hawaiians are known for aloha and sustainability.

The problem stems from an inadequate accommodation of our Hawaiian culture. The observatories are like little Western temples. Where is the Hawaiian temple?

Will Hawaiians have a place in the discussion when we’re flying into space soon? Not if we don’t have our own site above the clouds, as the observatories do.

Hawaiians are known for aloha and sustainability, and that’s the moral authority a cultural center above the clouds would represent. Those are the values our world needs more of and which we would share and teach there.

Show respect for our Hawaiian culture by building a Hawaiian-run cultural center above the clouds and everything else will fall into place.