Emmanuela Shinta is a Dayak activist and filmmaker whose work is widely known in Southeast Asia. She is the founder of Ranu Welum Foundation. With a reputation forleading and empowering young people, she regularly speaks at workshops, graduations,panel discussions, activist forums and even in churches, around the region. She is at the forefront of taking and active and peaceful role in preserving the herittage, humanity and environment of Kalimantan, amidst the infamous haze that engulfs the region each year. In 2016 she started YOUTH ACT CAMPAIGN, youth movement to end forest fire and haze that has been happening for 20 years in Kalimantan.
In 2015, Shinta appeared in Channel News Asia Singapore documentary entitled Heart of the Haze. ASIAN Geographic also featured her as ASIAN Icon for issue 2/2016. Altogether with her team in RWF, Shinta works to use media and journalism as the tool for social transformation. DANUM Magazine, a bilingual magazine made from recycle papers, and also Ranu Welum Youtube Channel are the plattform to voice the stories of culture including humanity, Dayak native people’s connection to the forest of Kalimantan. Her latest documentary entitled When Women Fight which tells the stories of crisis fire and haze in 2015 has been screened in various events including ASEAN People’s Forum in Timor Leste, Freedom Film Festival in Kuala Lumpur and Ubud Writer and Reader Festival 2016.
