In the 1970s and 1980s, she worked at Victoria University. She created Te Herenga Waka Marae with her husband, Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, and Wiremu Parker. At the university she became active in union affairs, in the Association of University Staff (now the TEU). In 2010, she became the TEUs first lifetime member. Broughton was on the Tekaumārua, the advisory board to the Māori King, Tuheitia Paki. In 2014, she was part of the New Zealand delegation that sent off the canoes of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Hōkūle'a and Hikianalia.