This song is a protest to the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea - the highest and most sacred mountain in Polynesia located on Hawai'i Island. The telescope, while providing many scientific benefits, would be detrimental to the environment, spirituality, and political process of the people of Hawai'i.

Draw The Line At 13 is dedicated to all of the kia'i mauna (mountain protectors) who stand in protest against this desecration. Kūpaʻa kākou! Kū kiaʻi mauna!

Why protest the TMT?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTdP5iOK5E
Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxMvMBO5hnk

Brad Bordessa: Words, music, 'ukulele, vocals
Alan Ku: Bass, engineering
Noa Eads: Drums

Lyrics:

They made their stand on the mountain road
Hawaiian soldiers, the nationals
In their footsteps the spirits paced
Ancestors watched from every face

As they gathered upon the heights
They took to task all the men of might
Bent on rendering the sacred dull
Desecration in capitals

Kū kiaʻi mauna

Draw the line at 13
Look inside, how many light-years do you need to see?
Turn your eyes home
Don't look back until the 7th generation's grown

Bare feet on pavement in thin air
Don't tell me you could run like that if you weren't scared
Scared for the land, scared for your life
Scared to live if you didn't do what's right

© Brad Bordessa 2015

Draw The Line At 13

Brad's debut EP featuring 5 original 'ukulele instrumentals.

Carve

Surfing Sunlight

Aerial

Song For Shelly

Taj Mahal

My contribution to the Institute of Hawaiian Music compilation album, Pukana. Kaulana Nā Pua was written in 1893 by Ellen Prendergast as a protest to the illegal annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States.

Brad Bordessa

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