EP 50: Kanaka ʻŌiwi Resistance to Settler Science at Mauna a Wākea with Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar
This week on the Indigenous Planetary Health podcast, hosts Hoku and Melia share an emotional conversation with Iokepa Casumbal‑Salazar about his new book, First Light: Kanaka ʻŌiwi Resistance to Settler Science at Mauna a Wākea [https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517902469/first-light/]. Iokepa reflects on the long, winding journey that brought this book into being—one shaped by accountability to community, by deep listening, and by the responsibility of carrying stories that are much larger than any single voice, while remaining accountable to the people and places that hold them.
Together, we hold space for both resistance and reverence. The conversation moves through the tensions between settler science and Indigenous knowledge, the force of militarization and state power, and the everyday practices of care that sustain Kanaka ʻŌiwi relationships to Mauna a Wākea. We reflect on the 2015 and 2019 blockades at Mauna Kea, situating them within over 130 years of Kanaka ʻŌiwi resistance to U.S. occupation and settler colonialism, and tracing how earlier battles over telescope development shaped the political, legal, and cultural formations of kiaʻi (protectors, guardians).
At the heart of this episode is both struggle and joy. Iokepa shares what it means to write from within a living movement—one that resists settler science, capital, and law, while also re‑centering ceremony, relationship, and the sacred. This conversation invites listeners to imagine a Kanaka ʻŌiwi futurity rooted not in more concrete and extraction, but in aloha ʻāina and deep relationships—to land, to ancestors, and to one another.
Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar [https://campusdirectory.ucsc.edu/cd_detail?uid=jsalaz27] is currently an Associate Professor in Critical Race & Ethnic Studies [https://cres.ucsc.edu/] at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) [https://www.ucsc.edu/]. He teaches courses on Indigenous politics, settler colonialism, popular culture, imperialism, militarism, tourism, and decolonial methodologies.
This podcast is created by the Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health [https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fheclab.com%2Fdr-heather-castleden%2F&data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MAuznh9eyF%2FFiTRhKMk1f8nP6dxuiNg4WvewOGR%2B8Hc%3D&reserved=0] at the University of Victoria, with production support from Cited Media [https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcitedmedia.ca%2F&data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=t3KKOkUefkSGMaCSYvIeY%2BtGRveHWMlZTq4eEdJM7TI%3D&reserved=0]. We receive additional support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcihr-irsc.gc.ca%2Fe%2F193.html&data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=KDIN0JGLsVtk6x2XyKGp3bIb4JJLA3Zgh9GLt4wTRXk%3D&reserved=0] You can find us at https://indigenousplanetaryhealth.ca/ [https://indigenousplanetaryhealth.ca/]
