Mauna Kea Education and Awareness (MKEA) was founded in 2015 by a group of predominantly Native Hawaiian women in the Waimea community on the island of Hawai’i, who were united against the proposed construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) on the sacred mountain of Mauna Kea. Years of culturally-grounded collaborative protection efforts by MKEA and many others from Hawai’i and around the world have delayed and defunded the project. Today MKEA continues to provide cultural learning opportunities centered around Mauna Kea, creating a platform for the empowerment and unification of Native Hawaiian communities, and ensuring that the generations of kia’i (protectors) yet to come will “always know how to stand, and why they are standing.”