Systemic change through lived experience leadership: dismantling oppressive tables and co-creating equitable policy futures
Original framing: “‘Demand the impossible’: how lived experience leaders make systems and policy better” — The Conversation - Global
Marginalised voices are not just absent from policy tables but are systematically excluded by design, with their lived experiences pathologised or commodified. The framing of 'lived experience leaders' as innovators obscures the fact that their knowledge has always been the foundation of resistance and survival. True inclusion requires dismantling the power structures that define who is 'qualified' to lead, not just adding more seats at the table.
The original headline frames lived experience leadership as a novel innovation, but this obscures its deep roots in indigenous governance and resistance movements that have long demanded the impossible.
The 'table' metaphor is a colonial construct, where power is concentrated in the hands of those who built the furniture, not those forced to sit at it. True systemic change requires dismantling these structures entirely, not just adding more seats. Indigenous frameworks like *kaitiakitanga* and participatory models like Porto Alegre’s show that governance can be reimagined as a communal act, where lived experience is not a credential but the foundation of policy. The trickster’s disruption—whether through Anansi’s cunning or Hermes’ trickery—reveals the absurdity of a system that claims to value lived experience while excluding its bearers from power. The path forward lies in decolonising governance, funding lived experience leadership as a public good, and institutionalising reflexive accountability, ensuring that policy is co-created with those most affected by its outcomes.