Sunday Read: Jason Momoa committed to Mauna Kea 'ohana'

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Actor Jason Momoa and police joke around with this photo.

Jason Momoa released a photo of his "arrest" for protesting the construction of Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) on top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano. 

By the expressions on the faces of the police officers and the bemused look on Momoa, the photo was staged as a joke.

What is not a joke is Momoa's commitment to stopping the TMT, which would be 18 stories high and cover the area of a NFL stadium.

"It's kind of the umbilical cord to earth," the Hawaii-born actor tells CNN. "You know, if you think about the Hawaiian islands, that's the biggest mountain in the world, right? All the way up. So Mauna Kea is the most sacred. They call it the belly button, too. That's like our birth place. You can imagine that in the middle of the ocean. That's how our islands were formed. So how can that not be sacred?"

Since the plans for the TMT were unveiled in 2015, opposition has been building resulting in a blockade of the road leading up to the observatory site which was slated to begin July 16. Native Hawaiians and their supporters have thus far been able to stop the delivery of building materials.

In between photo shoots, TV appearances, prepping for "Aquaman 2," and spending time with his family, the 40-year old Momoa joins the protests when he can, often bringing his family and other celebrities with him.

In an Instagram post last week, he jokingly wrote, “Sorry Warner Bros we can’t shoot Aquaman 2. Because Jason got run over by a bulldozer trying to stop the desecration of his native land.”

He continued, “THIS iS NOT HAPPENING. WE ARE NOT LETTING YOU DO THIS ANYMORE. Enough is enough. Go somewhere else.”

Another joke? Momoa himself has often spoken about the cause and the sacrifice he is willing to make to fight for this cause:

“It’s definitely a fear of mine. You know, I, I love playing ‘Aquaman,’ and there may come a time where it happens that I’m on set on something that I really love and Warner Brothers, who has taken care of me and launched my career, and there’s a certain part of you that goes, ‘I’m human, this is something I care about, but it’s an injustice that I have to do something about,” he told CNN.

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Jason Momoa spends as much time he can on Mauna Kea. Above, he is holding the hands of son and daughter.

Scientists prefer the Mauna Kea site because of the clear and dark skies on the dormant volcano. That explains why there are already 13 observatories built on the mountain, some are no longer being used.

“We allowed astronomy to have a place on the Mauna Kea but they continue to ask for more and more and more, and we have to say no at this point. Because when we say yes it means saying yes to the destruction of our endangered lands,” said president of the Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, Kealoha Pisciotta, told the BBC.

"Most of them are outdated and they're not as big. They're just up there and they promised to remove them and they never have. It's just another one of those promises ... and we're done. We're over it," he says.

Nevertheless, recent negotiations between the demonstrators and scientists will allow access to the working observatories by bulldozing a temporary road that would skirt the blockade.

“The resolution to this situation will likely include accelerated removal of decommissioned telescopes and Hawaiian land rights and self-determination. TMT and the astronomy community should support these efforts,” says Thayne Currie, an astrophysicist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, who uses Mauna Kea telescopes. 

“The state leadership really needs to be decisive, both on TMT’s access and on these broader issues faced in Hawaii,” Currie stated.

The demonstrations show no signs of abating. A community has formed, with shops, a cafeteria and a lecture program set up. At times, the number of protestors have been in the thousands.

The Aquaman star says he feels the anti TMT demonstrations are working and describes his part in it as a calling to do what feels right in his soul.

"There's massive progress that's bringing our people together," he says, adding, "I think there's a lot of problems in Hawaii. There's a lot of things that have happened in our history, a lot of injustice, and so we're shining a light on it. People like myself or Dwayne Johnson, Bruno Mars, trying to spread the awareness all around the world. For my soul I need to be there. If I'm not working, I'm trying to get over there."

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