Representation isn’t enough: Prudence Walker on power and participation

When Prudence Walker MInstD stepped into her first national board role at 21, she had recently received treatment for a brain tumour. A young disabled student and volunteer, Walker was soon chairing the board of Canteen, a national organisation supporting young people living with cancer. It was a steep learning curve.

“My first board meeting included discussion about whether we could afford to employ a national manager at $40,000 a year,” Walker recalls. “We were later dealing with serious organisational risks – human resource issues, financial precarity and governance processes that needed to grow with the organisation.”

Those early years formed the bedrock of a governance career defined not by status or title, but by service and responsibility. Today, Walker serves as Aotearoa New Zealand’s Disability Rights Commissioner – one of four commissioners on the Crown entity board of Te Kāhui Tika Tangata, the Human Rights Commission.

In addition to the statutory focus on disability rights, she also serves on the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and holds delegations for the right to housing, health and for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) rights.

Walker’s position is grounded in promoting, protecting and monitoring the rights of tāngata whaikaha Māori and all disabled people – a mandate approached with a uniquely intersectional and systems-literate lens.

“I’ve always been interested in issues of justice, fairness and intersectionality. While I didn’t have the language for it as a child, those are the lenses I apply to life and have taken into every role.”

While some see not-for-profit board work as a stepping stone, Walker challenges that view.

“Not-for-profit governance is not easy. You may not get paid, but the roles are incredibly complex. You’re often working with organisations that have few resources and big responsibilities. You might be dealing with governance and management overlap, high expectations and significant risk – all without the infrastructure that larger organisations take for granted.”

This early exposure to high-stakes governance created a dissonance in her career. Paid roles, often entry-level due to barriers related to age, health and disability, and education disruption, didn’t reflect the senior governance experience on her CV. Many employers, Walker believes, simply couldn’t reconcile the two.

“In my 20s and even into my 30s, that board experience often worked against me because my paid employment experience was more at entry level. Employers couldn’t see the full picture of the skills I had to offer – even though I’d led through crises, chaired a board and managed significant risk.”

It wasn’t until joining CCS Disability Action that Walker’s governance and lived experience were recognised as assets.

“Organisations get the best of people when we can bring all that we are to our work. For many people, including tāngata whaikaha and all disabled people, our paths are often different to those who have more traditional or linear careers.”

Walker never set out to become a chief executive, but when the opportunity arose to lead Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA), the values alignment was undeniable.

“I looked at the role and thought, I can and I want to do this. I hadn’t managed budgets of that size, but I understood money, governance, systems and people.”

Walker’s governance experiences 15 years earlier came flooding back.

“I’d gained management and HR qualifications after my early board experience because I never wanted to be in that situation again without the right tools. That said, my time with Canteen was the experience I drew on most in my time with DPA.”

As chief executive, Walker led during the Covid-19 response. Under enormous pressure, DPA managed the bulk of mask exemption communications and card distribution. At one point, Walker wrote directly to the Director-General of Health and the Minister for Covid-19 Response about the rights of disabled people – and financial and legal concerns.

“We were a small organisation carrying risk on behalf of the government. I realised that no one was going to save us. For the sake of disabled people, our members and our staff, I had to make the tough call to stop. So, in consultation with our board, I did. It was hard. A true test of my leadership.”

As Disability Rights Commissioner, Walker is clear: diversity in governance is not a matter of optics – it’s a matter of rights, responsibility and relevance.

“Disabled people are members, consumers, customers, employees and citizens. Governance bodies that don’t include us are not effective. We’re not an exception – we’re a core part of every population.”

With 17% of New Zealanders identifying as disabled, and many more experiencing disabilities in their lifetime, Walker urges boards to stop seeing accessibility and inclusion as compliance issues and start seeing them as strategic ones.

“When governance includes lived experience, you ask different questions. You catch risks earlier. You design better systems. Tāngata whaikaha Māori and disabled people can also support other board members to think more broadly. You don’t need to know everything, but you do need to ask the right questions.”

Walker acknowledges board members can be nervous – worried about saying the wrong thing or being seen as tokenistic – but encourages boards to explore discomfort.

“Ask the question: who is this for? What barriers might exist? Have we considered accessibility and inclusion in our tools, our policies, our systems? The questions don’t have to be perfect. Silence maintains the status quo.”

For organisational leaders and governors, Walker says building inclusive culture is foundational.

“Don’t just ask people to disclose their experiences or needs – create environments where it’s safe to do so. Inclusion is not about ticking boxes. It’s about trust, flexibility and being willing to shift your systems to work for more people.”

Walker points to the need for accessible board systems – such as screen-reader-friendly board software –how meetings are run, meaningful representation on boards and clarity about governance responsibilities.

“Governance meetings are for making decisions. You need people who understand the issues, but also people who can govern. That’s why setting expectations and investing in capability matters.”

For small not-for-profits, Walker has a word of encouragement: professionalism and resource constraints are not incompatible.

“Being a not-for-profit is not an excuse for poor governance. Tight resources make good governance and hiring decisions more important, not less.”

As Walker reflects on the journey – from student councils to national governance roles, from inaccessible workplaces to leading system change – the focus remains clear.

Prudence Walker MInstD

“It’s about power. Who has it, and who doesn’t. Governance is about shifting power and ensuring those impacted by decisions are part of making them.”

And for those in governance today, especially in Aotearoa, that means creating space – not just for tāngata whaikaha Māori and disabled people to be present, but to lead.