If the first rule of Kiwiburn is that you can’t buy anything, the second is: stop trying to.
When I first heard about “gifting culture” at Kiwiburn, I pictured myself turning up in the middle of a field, surrounded by beautiful, half-naked people, clutching a box of Tim Tams like, “How many of these will get me a massage?”
What do you bring to a place where nothing’s for sale?
Do I hand out friendship bracelets like a six-year-old at camp?
Am I supposed to craft?
Naturally, I went straight to Pinterest.
“Easy DIY gifts for festivals,” I typed, like a true child of late capitalism.
Thirty tabs later, elbows-deep in crochet tutorials, I was crying softly into a ball of $8 acrylic.
Crafting has never been my natural gift. So I turned to my Burner friends instead.
“No money?” I asked.
“No trade-off?”
“No, seriously. Is there like a secret handshake or something?“
They just smiled.
That light knowing smile reserved for people who have ascended beyond Afterpay.
And said, “Why do you feel like there has to be a catch?”
DEFINE: GIFT (Please Use in a Sentence)
Stumped on the catch, I asked some Welly-based Burners what technically counted as a gift:
- “A sandwich.”
- “Shade.”
- “Emotional stability,” said a veteran mid-laugh, before sobering up.
“But seriously, you’re going to need a MacBook charger.”
THE SECRET SAUCE OF GIFTING
Okay, knowing what counts isn’t enough. I needed the formula.
Surely there was a right way to give.
*To avoid the kind of gift that’s like the pig-shaped chopping board you made in year 7 that could’ve used another hour of sanding.
What’s the best gift you’ve received or given out?
- “Sharpies, life-changing.”
- “Someone just made me pancakes every morning.”
- “In-flight meal service.”
- “I brought a spray bottle and misted people.”
- “Myself, G.”
Other gifts observed in the Paddock:
- Human car wash.
- Advice on tent feng shui.
- Ruminations on which cactus is emotionally compatible with you.
- “A compliment so good I had to sit down”.
KIWIBURN ECONOMICS 101
I kept waiting for someone to explain how generosity circulates. But it turns out the math doesn’t work the way we’d expect. The Kiwiburn gifting culture economy is powered by something less measurable — more gravitational.
Each gesture pulls another into orbit.
And somewhere in that orbit, I realised something uncomfortable: giving feels weirdly vulnerable.
It’s easier to spend money than to risk meaning.
But my friends set me on the straight and narrow:
“Gifting isn’t about what you bring. Maybe it’s about what you stop expecting.”
No one tells you that gifting at the Burn is basically an unlearning. You have to deprogram every part of yourself that says, ‘If I give, I’ll lose something’.
You don’t owe anyone a smile, a hug, or a sharpie just because they gave you one.
This is a world where giving something away isn’t a transaction, it’s an invitation.
- Acro-yoga.
- A kazoo solo.
- A funeral for the snapped tent pole.
All of it counts.
And the weirdest, best part?
You are the gift.
Yes, you — dusty, bewildered, and smelling like the river — in all your first-time Burner glory, you are exactly what someone else needed all along.
And if you still have that box of Tim Tams?
Well, that’s just the cherry on top.
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Written by Lilith — new to KBlog, newer to the Paddock, and recent convert to the Church of the Gift Economy (all hail).
Artist credit: Jacynta Scurfield.
Photo credit: Nabulen.
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