Articulating Dayak Indigeneity through Gendered Media, Youth Activism, and Global Connectivities

Abstract This article focuses on the Ranu Welum foundation based in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, an independent youth and media initiative that actively studies and reshapes notions of ‘Dayakness’. The foundation seeks to connect with global networks of Indigenous communities and address its environmental, socio-political, and health concerns in the international domain. We pay special attention to the short documentaries directed or produced by its founder, Emmanuela Shinta. We discuss how her films represent and contribute to the foundation’s expansion of networks, gendered perspectives on social and environmental struggles, and intertwining of the voices of activists, Indigenous communities, and nature. This article seeks to bring new insights to studies of Indigenous media use and female documentary-making in Indonesia, by analysing the paradoxical interconnections between the expression of local concerns and communal identity on the one hand and the global media use and individual self-imaging of local youth on the other.