Festival environmental sustainability is an area growing in practice, theory and acceptability. Literature is provided across a range of accessible media such as print, film and online. Meegan Jones (2010) states in Sustainable Event Management: A Practical Guide, that ‘those producing live events can demonstrate sustainability in action’ (p. 3). Jones (2010) suggests it is the festival artists/organisers role ‘to ensure a healthy marriage’ (p. vi) between the functions of sustainability and environmental management. Jones (2010) continues by stating this is achieved through the festival artists/organisers intimate event knowledge including audience and ‘other particular circumstances surrounding them both’ (p. vi). Jones’ (2010) reasoning for producing sustainable festivals is that
with the sheer size of the events industry across the world and the millions upon millions of people who attend events each year, the industry and all who arrange large public gatherings have a responsibility to ensure sustainable event management. (p. 4)
Jones (2010) points out that the ‘base function of sustainable event management is communications, management, marketing and making the right choices’ (p. vi). Getz (2007) states that it is the infusing of ‘environmental education into events, as a form of social marketing’ (p. 344) that is part of the goal. Jones (2010) relates to a social messaging example regarding the guiding principles of the Burning Man Festival held in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. On the Burning Man Festival (2012) website it details both the festival’s and festival attendee’s expected obligations with respect to its ten principles including ‘Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-Reliance, Radical Self-Expression, Communal Effort, Civic
Responsibility, Leaving No Trace, Participation and Immediacy’. In reference to the Burning Man festival principles and the research project, it can be noted they served as a resourceful guide to introducing environmentally sustainable values connecting festival management, those attending the festival and for the resident communities involved with the festival production. This would be encapsulated through the
in Chapter six regarding the early design of the Yalukit Willam Ngargee environmental management plan.
Getz (2007) believes that ‘the greening of events will remain a major issue’ (p. 316), citing the implementation of the Olympics environmental program as leading the way. According to Getz (2007) it is the principles of sustainable environmental
development in which future events will be referenced and evaluated, noting the following sustainable event criteria as:
• Minimization of waste, energy consumption and pollution • Keeping private travel to a minimum
• Protecting resources for the future
• Fostering a positive environmental attitude
• Re-Using facilities, not building needless infrastructure
• Avoiding damage to wildlife habitat and ecological systems. (p. 316)
One of the catalyst international events partly responsible for influencing today’s global environmental sustainability movement is the first World Environment Day initiated during the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment 5 June 1972, in Stockholm. As part of the United Nations (1972) conference, a Declaration on the Human Environment was implemented including seven proclamations and twenty-six principles, the first principle stating that humans have
the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and wellbeing, and he/she bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations. (para. 11)
Bringing the literature back into the festival artistry locality I refer to the 2008 Yalukit Willam Ngargee festival that was included in the Summer of Sustainability. An
evaluation of festival and sustainability measures Summer of Sustainability was produced by Liz Franzman on behalf of Sustainability Victoria (2009), State
of festivals and festival artists/organisers that have tried, tested and innovated festival environmental sustainability mechanisms. Released as an accessible online five-part YouTube series, the Summer of Sustainability is housed on the Sustainable Living Festivals online video hub resource. The five topic titles include planning and auditing, waste issues, water question, the energy equation and onward and upward. The program received a Banksia Award in the Environmental Services Category 2009 and has since contributed to the global dialogue of festival environmental
sustainability.
4.7 Summary
The examination of the literature with respect to festival domains considered both local and global practices. It was seen that Indigenous festivals challenge the dominant nation-state homogeneity through valuing difference and equality on Indigenous terms. They raise issues of inclusion and reciprocity in the social dialogues of power sharing, policy, politics and what a good life means to the Indigenous community. It was suggested that Indigenous festivals cater to
educational, health, employment and wellbeing prospects by being locally operated. Additionally, they have the capability of handing on to successive generations a part of today’s active life as identified and defined by the community. Crucial to this conversation is UNESCO’s approach to intangible cultural heritage and the vital role that festivals can play.
Chapter Five: Dialogues of Reciprocity Literature Review
Understanding reciprocity is indispensable for understanding all social forms, such as communities, organisations,
families and political systems. (Kolm, 2008, p. 5)
5.1 Introduction
Dialogues of Reciprocity draws upon an extensive field of literature to provide a background on how I was informed of the many different approaches to reciprocity. The chapter’s depth of literature is introduced by definitions and is then presented in four thematic headings.
1. Reciprocity Rules 2. Wholes in the Economy
3. Reciprocitarian Motives and Intergenerational Equity 4. Indigenizing Reciprocity
Reciprocity Rules reviews the discussions of rules related to reciprocity in spiritual and religious writing and client and commercial based publications. Wholes in the Economy is based on the anthropological writings of Marcel Mauss (1924) and David Hamilton (1970) which consider small scale and industrial circulations of exchange, social institutions and productivity.
Reciprocitarian Motives and Intergenerational Equity begin with Serge Christophe Kolm’s (2008) Reciprocity that outlines reciprocitarianism and how it may influence entrepreneurship. The heading leads into discussions by Richard Hiskes (2009) and Edith Brown Weiss (1990) regarding intergenerational reciprocity and planetary rights.
Indigenizing Reciprocity reviews a broad area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature in the fields of research, law, health, history and localized to the Yalukit Wilam. The section includes dialogues from R. G. Schwab (1995), Judy Atkinson (2002), Western Australian legal bench-book (2002), Working Together (2010), Larissa Berndt (1995), Ronald and Catherine Berndt (1989), Diane Barwick (1984) and Aunty Carolyn Briggs (2008).
Reciprocity forms a broad spectrum of abstractions ranging from regular occurrences, nation state trade relationships, implied trans-migrations of the soul such as
reincarnation and is a place name called Reciprocity No. 32, in Saskatchewan, Canada. Literature fields that discuss reciprocity in its various forms include economics and business, religion and spirituality, politics and policy, education, anthropology, social sciences, health and wellbeing, photography, mathematics and engineering. There is a limited discussion in the arts relating to reciprocity and it is hoped the research project will contribute to an emerging field for fellow
practitioners.
The etymology of the word reciprocity is derived from the Latin recos-procos
meaning ‘going backwards and forwards (like the sea), hence alternating and working both ways’ (p. 554) as defined in Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of
Modern English (1966). Broken down etymologically Origins (1966) details “re” as back and “pro” as forward. The Oxford English Dictionary (1989), defines reciprocity as ‘a state or condition of being reciprocal, a state or relationship in which there is mutual action, influence, giving and taking, correspondence between two parties or things’ (p. 330). A second Oxford English Dictionary (1989) definition of reciprocity consists of ‘mutual or correspondent concession of advantages or privileges, as forming a basis for commercial relations between two countries’ (p. 330). Reciprocity’s root, as alluded to by Origins and the Oxford English Dictionary, suggests a going backwards in a present space in order to go forwards between two parties with the larger observation of either nation-State trading or natural forces operating within a cyclical circulation, such as the influencing of the sea tides.