By Kenika Lorenzo-Elarco and Kara Dumaguin
As Kānaka working in community-facing roles within astronomy spaces in Hawaiʻi, we often find ourselves carrying more than just our professional roles. We carry ʻike, identity, and a deep sense of kuleana to the places and communities that shape us. That kuleana does not stay outside of our work. It moves with us into every space we enter.
Recently, we engaged in community meetings across the pae ʻāina through the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority. We listened to voices from different islands, each sharing memories, ʻike, and pilina with Maunakea. What stood out was not only the diversity of perspectives, but the consistency of relationship. There was a shared understanding that this work does not exist in isolation, but within a broader landscape of relationships, histories, and ongoing conversations around stewardship and responsibility.
The mana of those spaces stayed with us.
They reminded us that our presence in astronomy is not separate from who we are as Kānaka. Long before telescopes, our kūpuna observed the skies, navigating vast oceans and understanding their movements through relationship and practice. Observation was never only technical, but relational, grounded in ʻike and in an awareness of place that extends beyond what is measurable.
That understanding continues to shape how we move through these spaces.
Kuleana is often spoken about as responsibility, but for us, it is not something that turns on or off depending on where we are. It is present in how we listen, how we engage, and how we decide what we are willing to accept or remain silent about.
At times, this work feels like kōnane. Each move is deliberate. Each choice shapes what becomes possible next. Not every move is visible, and not every move leads to immediate change, but over time, the board shifts. Relationships shift. The environment itself begins to respond.
There are moments when that kuleana feels clear, grounded in relationship and in the ways we hold space with intention. But there are also moments where it feels heavier, where it sits in tension with the structures around us. In those moments, there is no simple resolution. There is only the work of deciding how we continue to show up.
We carry kuleana to our communities, who continue to share their ʻike and manaʻo about the future of Maunakea. We carry kuleana to our kūpuna, whose knowledge systems remind us that observation is rooted in relationship, not only technique.
We also carry kuleana within the institutions we are part of. Part of that responsibility is helping these spaces become more grounded, more aware, and more accountable in their relationship to place.
The road up the mountain is never just a road.
Each time we make that drive, we are reminded that we are not arriving as only one thing. We arrive carrying everything that has shaped us, everything that we are accountable to, and everything that we are still learning how to hold.
Kenika Lorenzo-Elarco works in astronomy at the W. M. Keck Observatory, and Kara Dumaguin works in community relations at the Canada-France-Hawai’i Telescope.
