February 21, 2021 at 3:42 pm by Rachel Lim On Feb. 16, native elders from the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and Indigenous activists came together to lead a discussion about the significance of sacred land to Native American cultures and to explore UC Santa Barbaraâs legacy as a land-grant university built on Indigenous land, as well as the University of Californiaâs role in funding the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea, a sacred volcano on the island of Hawaiâi. Rachel Lim / Daily Nexus The panel, called âUnderstanding the Sacred: Listening to Indigenous People and Land,â was held by UCSBâs MultiCultural Center as part of its Conscious Conversations Series and was co-sponsored by the Mauna Kea Protectors, a group fighting for the immediate termination of the construction of the telescope.