Celine is a student of the earth interested in reconciling the relationships between people and their environments by advocating for environmental liberation. As a Black Geographer, her African identity, culture and traditions influence her work. While growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, her ancestral and familiar connections are rooted in Rwanda and the DRC. She is now grateful to live and learn on the Haldimand Tract, Turtle Island. These intersecting identities and experiences influence the lens through which she approaches her work. She is pursuing joint honours in Environment, Resources and Sustainability & Geography and Environmental Management, minor in Political Sciences at the University of Waterloo with a cooperative degree program.
Celine is part of a network of environmental liberation organizers and educators. She is also a published Essayist, with her work appearing in Intersectional Environmentalist and TRAD Magazine, a publication for African ideas and collective memories. In 2022, her essay After Apartheid, Green Spaces are still White Spaces, was published in the book Nature Is A Human Right: Why we’re fighting for the green in a grey world, available through Penguin Random House. Celine also recently completed a fellowship with Generation Green, a young Black-led organization and ecosystem that pioneered the environmental liberation framework, as their environmental liberation room fellow. In this role, she worked on expanding upon the EL Room curriculum.
As a student, Celine has worked with UWRAISE (Racial Advocacy for inclusion, solidarity and equity) since 2020 as advocacy director and most recently completed two terms as the co-coordinator. She was also a part of the organizing team for the Xchanges 2021 conference Borders of Being, which sought to bring together students, staff, faculty and community members to engage in conversations that build solidarity. She has been a part of many consultations and advisory groups to ensure the experiences and voices of students are present in decision-making spaces. She hopes to contribute to the ongoing work being done by Black UWaterloo students to ensure a safe campus where Black students can show up as their whole selves without any burdens and barriers.
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