Blazing Swan

Blazing Swan is an annual regional Burning Man event held in Kulin, Western Australia. It is an experiment in temporary community and artistic expression, and is guided by ten main principles, including radical inclusion, gifting and radical self-reliance. The event occurs around Easter each year, usually over a period of seven days. The event location is in dry bushland near Jilakin Lake, and is referred to as Jilakin Rock City. Each year a swan-shaped wooden effigy is built and burned at the culmination of the event.

History

Blazing Swan was started by a collective of artists/producers whom have all attended the Burning Man Festival in the USA and were inspired to organize an official regional event in WA.

Culture

Ten Principles

Blazing Swan is understood not as an event, but as referring to a way of life lived consistently with these 10 Principles. They are meant to be taken as a whole, as a set of commonly-understood values.^[1]

• Radical Inclusion: Anyone may be a part of Blazing Swan. We welcome and respect the stranger. No pre-requisites exist for participation in our community.
• Gifting: Blazing Swan is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
• Decommodification: In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
• Radical Self-reliance: Blazing Swan encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
• Radical Self-expression: Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
• Communal Effort: Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote, and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
• Civic Responsibility: We value civil society. Community members who organise events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavour to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
• Leaving No Trace: Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible,
  to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
• Participation: Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
• Immediacy: Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

Theme Camps

Theme camps are an integral part of Burning Man culture. These are established by the event participants and contribute to the unique identity of Blazing Swan.

Theme camps at Blazing Swan 2016 include:

1. The Far Away Tree Tribe - ҒΔTT camp
2. The Anti-Precludian Reading And Performance Society
3. Silent Disco: Illumination
4. Fort Swan
5. Twisted Jah
6. Blaze Skate Park
7. Papazahns
8. Shiva's Tea House
9. Warm & Fuzzy Theme Camp
10. Pirate Pikelets AKA Blazing Swan- Steampunk Pancake Kids Kamp - SPKK
11. Outrigger Island
12. Ropespace
13. KaMp Koasis
14. Camp Anita Cocktail
15. Aruma
16. Kaleidoscope Mandala
17. Forbidden Fruits
18. Saraswati's Song
19. High Flyers Disc Golf Club
20. Detox
21. Shadynastys
22. Flaming Big Kids Funpark
23. The Alliance AKA The @lliance
24. Dragon Fire
25. Fairy Tribe
26. Serene Green
27. Fluffs on Tour
28. Camp Unicorn Powwwwwerrrrr
29. The Church of Belligerence
30. The Lab
31. Tribal Tribe
32. High Tide
33. Soundscape
34. Visual Creation Manipulation Station
35. Fire Tribe
36. Community Roots
37. Jam Camp
38. Pom Pom Palace
39. The Bomb - Blazing Swan Information Radio
40. Phoenix Dreams
41. Moonbase
42. MoVeMeNt MaDdnEsS
43. TBC (Heavy Petting Zoo)
44. Mike Parry & Associates
45. Art Slut Society
46. GSN
47. Booth With No Name
48. Greasy Pirates
49. XYZ
50. No Limit Camp
51. Liberation Station
52. The Soup Kitchen
53. Black Lagoon
54. Camp Random
55. Temple Guardians
56. Tribal Progression

Blazing Swan, Inc.

Blazing Swan, Inc. is the not-for-profit incorporated association dedicated to organising the annual Blazing Swan event. Its headquarters are based in Fremantle, Western Australia. As per Blazing Swan Inc.'s constitution, its main objectives are to:

(a) organise, develop and promote:

(i) an annual arts, music, and cultural festival which is inclusive, accepting, and safe;

(ii) other related events promoting self expression, identity and understanding;

(b) foster and create new art projects in Western Australia;

(c) develop and support workshops and training activities;

(d) support and develop community based fundraising events to further the Association’s objects;

(e) train volunteers to facilitate the Association’s objects; and

(f) conduct the Association’s activities in an environmentally sustainable manner.^[2]

Community Involvement

Blazing Swan Inc. is involved with a number of community art projects and philanthropic activities in Western Australia. Some examples are:

• Providing significant art grants to the community to encourage creative expression.^[3]
• Donating $10 from each ticket sold at the 2015 event towards funding a full-time age care nurse to the Shire of Kulin.^[4]
• Partnership with the Australian Government's 'Work for the Dole' program, to help job seekers gain skills and experience that give back to the community and can help them find a job.
• Donating a three metre wide metal sculpture created by Matt Bray to the Shire of Kulin, as a permanent public art offering.^[5]

References

External links

• Official website