POHAKULOA, Hawaii — When lava began to erupt from the world’s largest active volcano late last month, a surge of tourism followed. As the night sky over Mauna Loa lit orange, hotels on the Big Island filled up and the National Guard was activated to control traffic as onlookers filled the nearby highway, hoping to catch a glimpse.
Slow-moving lava shut down an atmospheric monitoring station and threatened to cross the main highway, while burying parts of an Army training area and spewing smoke and ash. But the main reaction has been excitement.
“I’ve never been this close to an active volcano,” said Brandon Gaubert, an audio engineer from New Orleans.
Many native Hawaiians, who make up about 13 percent of the Big Island’s 203,000 residents, shared the excitement, but for different reasons: Eruptions and their cycle of destruction and rebirth are an integral part of their beliefs.
“Our culture is not just about tiki torches and this fake tourist culture that has been going on for decades,” said Ku’ualoha Ho’omanawanui, a Native Hawaiian scholar who has written extensively about island deities such as Pele, the goddess of volcanoes and fire.
Some are hoping the eruption could help combat what they see as violations of their way of life. Those include the Army training site and plans for a telescope on another volcano, Mauna Kea.
Ho’omanawanui said the activity at Mauna Loa served as a reminder that eruptions have the ability to reshape Hawaii.
A teacher, Kahealani David, 41, and her daughter, Vaihere, 12, brought bird-of-paradise flowers as an offering to lay on cooled lava from previous eruptions. “We had to be here for this,” David said, emphasizing how important it was to watch Mauna Loa erupt while the summit of nearby Mauna Kea, a dormant shield volcano, was covered in snow. She said that Pele and her sister, Poliahu, the goddess of snow, were talking as the eruption developed.
Native Hawaiians make up 10 percent of Hawaii’s 1.4 million people, though that rises to more than 20 percent if part Hawaiians are included.
Scientists announced on December 13 that Mauna Loa had stopped erupting three days earlier. During the eruption, officials with the Hawaii Division of Resource Conservation and Control found at least a dozen people trespassing on the Mauna Loa Forest Reserve. Some native Hawaiians questioned the measures tourists will take for photos.
The tourism industry, a mainstay of the economy, drew some 250,000 visitors a day in 2019. It also raises the cost and difficulty of living for residents.
Ilihia Gionson, spokesman for the Hawaii Tourism Authority and a native Hawaiian, noted that the state was moving away from an effort to attract more and more visitors and was now promoting more sustainable forms of tourism. That change, he said, involves educating visitors about what behaviors are not acceptable.
“One of the fundamentals is that you have to make an invitation to explore a space,” Gionson said. “And if there’s no apparent invitation, you shouldn’t go there.”
By: SIMON ROMERO
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6494466, IMPORTING DATE: 2022-12-14 23:20:09
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