Rangahau | Research
A significant body of national and international research shows how successful Empowerment Self Defence (ESD) can be when taught by specialist trained and accredited teachers.
ESD is the only educational intervention that has been found to significantly reduce participants’ experiences of both completed and attempted sexual assault. Other positive results include significant increases in self-esteem, confidence, self-efficacy and positive feelings about one’s body. ESD training is also associated with significant reductions in fear of assault and victim blaming attitudes among participants, including survivors of violence. For more information see the international research listed below.
Kia Haumaru’s programmes have been independently evaluated by researchers Assoc. Prof. Jan Jordan and Dr Elaine Mossman between 2013 and 2018. Their findings align with the positive impacts and outcomes found internationally. Read their full report
Skills for Safety: An evaluation of the value, impact and outcomes of girls’ and women’s self defence in the community (2016) or the Executive Summary here
Our programmes have also been studied by the research project Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence. Read on to learn more about their research, findings and publications.
Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence
Ko te kōrero, me te tinana hei ārai i te tūkino ā-ira
A Marsden funded research project lead by Prof. Ann Weatherall and Bell Murphy at Victoria University’s School of Psychology.
Project Introduction Video
Overview of the Project
It is well established that ESD classes are effective in preventing violence. Less well understood is how these programmes work to transform people and make them less vulnerable to violence. This research project aimed to fill this gap in knowledge by investigating what is done in ESD classes in Aotearoa. The importance of this research has been recognised with a prestigious Marsden funding grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi.
Over a period of four years (2020–2024) we video-recorded and qualitatively analysed eleven ESD classes, taught by eight kaiako/teachers to around 200 students (ranging from 8 to 70 years old) around Aotearoa New Zealand. This resulted in over 55 hours of footage which became the data for our study.
The recordings are a rich resource for investigations. So far, our team has produced over 30 outputs which are listed below. These include a short video showcasing the work of Kia Haumaru and a suite of training materials based on our data which are being used by Kia Haumaru for ongoing professional development on a range of topics listed below.
So far, we have delivered 30 oral presentations at conferences across the world. We have produced 6 written publications in the form of academic journal articles and book chapters with several more articles still in development (see list below for links). The titles indicate the breadth of topics investigated. They include an examination of the psychological, verbal and physical strategies taught; how kaiako/teachers cultivate personal empowerment and work toward social change; and how a Kaupapa Māori approach further strengthens ESD in Aotearoa.
Our findings point to the transformational principles underpinning ESD in Aotearoa and document the broad range of activities used to apply them in class. These practices contribute to the well- documented positive impacts of ESD for individuals and communities.
We gratefully acknowledge the Marsden grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi and the support of Kia Haumaru without which our work would not have been possible.
The Research Team
Ann Weatherall — Co-principal Investigator
Ann Weatherall originally motivated this project. She is an adjunct professor of Psychology at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and is also a professor and Head of School of Psychology at University of Bedfordshire, UK. She studies language and communication drawing on, and further developing, feminist and discursive psychological theories and methods. Ann has published seven books and more than 135 journal articles, book chapters, and other scholarly publications on a wide range of gender issues, including motherhood, sex work, and violence. Her work has led to theoretical and empirical re-specifications of key disciplinary topics including age, cognition, emotion, gender and sexuality. Currently, she is focusing her work on the problem of gendered violence. In addition to this project, she is working on one that examines calls to the police classified as ‘family harm’.
Ann is leading the project with Bell and is primarily responsible for producing the scholarly outputs.
Bell Murphy — Co-principal Investigator
Bell Murphy is an accredited self-defence teacher and member of Kia Haumaru—Personal Safety Education. She holds a BA (Hons) in Social Anthropology and is a PhD candidate in the Gender Studies Programme at the University of Otago. Her research seeks to illuminate the meaning of empowerment in the context of ESD programmes in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This terrain is explored both theoretically and empirically through her autoethnographic experience as an empowerment self-defence teacher and thematic analysis of interviews with other teachers.
Bell is a co-leader of the project overseeing all aspects of its delivery, alongside project founder, Ann Weatherall.
Annie Tupaea –- Associate Investigator – Kaupapa Māori and Personal Safety Research
Annie Tupaea is an accredited Kia Haumaru kaiako and network member since 2017 where her current roles include Māori co-chairperson of the Kia Haumaru Board, lead trainer of the Training and Evaluation Team, and a member of the Kaupapa Māori Course Development Team. Annie also leads a Women’s Refuge in the eastern area of Tāmaki Makarau, a role that involves leading the Māori Growth Strategy for the organisation. With a Bachelor of Counselling and a Diploma in Māori Mental Health, Annie has centred her work on healing with a Te Ao Māori world view.
Annie’s role on the Talk and the Body project is to lead and oversee the Kaupapa Māori and Personal Safety Research Project (KMPS). The role involves supporting the development of a Kaupapa Māori programme for Kia Haumaru that is informed by historical, social and political analyses of family violence and which centres the strength, power and courage of wāhine Māori. Her Report Te Māuri o te Wahine is both theoretical and practical, documenting and further developing a Māori worldview in the context of violence prevention/empowerment education.
Former Team Members
Joanna Kidman (Prof) - Associate Investigator
Nichola Tyler (Dr) - Associate Investigator
Lorenza Mondada - Associate Investigator
Emma Tennent (Dr) - Associate Investigator
Gemma Mackenzie - Research Assistant and Technician
Maja Zonjic – Research Fellow
Ann Doehring - Research Assistant
Hannah Aslett - Research Assistant
Chelsea Gardiner - Research Assistant
Fiona Grattan - Research Assistant
Charm Phear - Research Assistant
Amy Wikaira - Research Assistant
Sarah Bowen - Summer Scholarship recipient and Research Assistant
Chloe Te Moananui -– Summer Scholarship recipient and Research Assistant
Meg Wolmarans - Summer Scholarship recipient
Outputs from the research project Using Talk and the Body
Publications
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Weatherall, A. (under review). Choral and collective embodied actions in feminist, empowerment self-defence classes. Interactional Linguistics
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Weatherall, A & Murphy, B., Doehring, A., (in press). Gender and inclusive language use in feminist self-defence classes. In Burnett, S & Vigo, F. (Eds.), Battlefield Linguistics: Contemporary contestations of language, gender and sexuality. De Gruyter-Mouton.
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Murphy, B., (in press). Beyond Personal Empowerment: the role of critical consciousness in ESD classes in Aotearoa. In L.M. Orchowski and J. Hollander (Eds.), Empowerment Self-Defense: Theory, Research and Practice.
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Weatherall, A & Murphy, B., (in Press). Voice and empowerment self-defence. In L.M. Orchowski & J Hollander (Eds.), Empowerment self-defence: Theory, research and practice.
Oral Presentations
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Weatherall, A. (2024, 11 September) Justifying the use of violence in feminist self-defence classes. Symposium on Forensic Conversations in Criminal Justice Settings, Loughborough University, UK.
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Murphy, B. & Tupaea, A. (2024). Kaupapa Māori perspectives on family and sexual violence prevention for rangatahi and tamariki. Te Pūtaketanga National Family Violence Conference, 30/05/24, National Network of Family Violence Services, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand
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Tupaea. A (2023) Kaupapa Māori Approach to Personal Safety. Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Murphy, B. (2023) Challenging Victim Blame while Teaching Resistance. Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Weatherall, A. (2023) Choral productions. Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Murphy, B & Aslett, H (2023) Trauma Sensitivity and Consent in Class. Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Doehring, A. (2023) Gender Inclusive Language. Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Aslett, H. (2023) Self-efficacy through positive self-defence fantasies. Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Aslett, H (2023) Teaching Psychological Defence in ESD Classes Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Weatherall, A. (2023) Choreographing verbal and physical moves. Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Weatherall, A. (2023) Assertive Communication in Assault Scenarios. Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence - Research Showcase, Victoria University Wellington. December 15.
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Aslett, H. (2023) Understanding Psychological Defence Mechanisms in Empowerment Self-Defence. Australia New Zealand Society of Criminology National Conference, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. 6-8 December.
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Murphy, B. & Tupaea, A. (2023). Kaupapa Māori Self-Defence and Empowerment Education. Sociology Association of New Zealand Annual Meeting, Waikato University, Tauranga, Aotearoa/New Zealand. 1 December.
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Weatherall, A. (2023). Invited seminar. Language matters in the prevention of gendered violence. Department of Linguistics. University of Wolverhampton. 29 November.
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Weatherall, A. (2023). Syntactic units in verbal and physical self-defence. Embodied Syntax Conference. Linköping University, Sweden. 7-8 September.
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Murphy, B. (2023). Collective Empowerment through Feminist Self Defence. Society for the Study of Social Problems 73rd Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, USA. 18-20 August.
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Aslett, H. (2023) Talking about psychological defence techniques in empowerment self-defence classes. 12th International Gender and Language Conference. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. 4-6 July.
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Murphy, B. (2023) Using tightrope talk to affirm agency without victim-blame in feminist self defence classes. 12th International Gender and Language Conference. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. 4-6 July.
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Weatherall, A. & Doehring, A. (2023). Refusing “like you mean it” in Feminist Self-Defence. 12th International Gender and Language Conference. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. 4-6 July.
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Weatherall, A., Murphy, B., Doehring, A., and Aslett, H. (2023). Panel presentation. Discursive dilemmas of gender and violence prevention. International Gender and Language Association Conference, Brisbane, Australia. 4-6 July.
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Weatherall, A. (2023) A conversation analytic approach to ‘risk’ and ‘harm’ grounded in a video-based study of empowerment self-defence classes. International Conference on Conversation Analysis. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. 26 June – 2 July.
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Weatherall, A. (2023). Invited seminar. Intervening in gender-based violence. Centre for Advanced Studies in Language and Communication. University of York, United Kingdom. 8 June.
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Weatherall, A. (2023) Invited keynote presentation. Intervening in trajectories of gender-based violence. Finnish Annual Social Psychology conference. Tampere University, Finland. 3-5 May.
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Weatherall, A. (2022) Invited keynote presentation. Embodying and Resisting Discourses of Gendered Violence. International Seminar on Gender and Discourse. Valenica, Spain. 27-28 October.
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Weatherall, A. (2022). Invited keynote presentation. Resistance and feminist Self-Defence Classes. 7th Resistance in talk-in-interaction conference. Oxford, UK. 10 August.
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Weatherall, A., Murphy, B., & Bowen S. (2022). Contributed Talk. “Let go of all the rules”: Transcending gender normativities in empowerment self-defence classes. Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference, Catania, Italy. 23-25 May.
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Weatherall, A. (2022). Invited Seminar. Verbal and Embodied Co-productions in Feminist Self-Defence Classes and Women’s Empowerment. University of Ulster, February.
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Weatherall, A (2021). Invited Seminar. Using talk and the body to prevent gender-based violence. Centre for Research in Psychological Wellbeing, Roehampton University, United Kingdom. 20 October.
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Weatherall, A., & Tennent, E. (2021). “BACK OFF!”: Empowering by using voice as a self-defence weapon. 11th International Gender and Language Association Conference, London, 22 -24 June.
Other Outputs
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In 2022 We hosted a collaborative meeting with Jocelyn Hollander. She is a leading scholar in the field of Empowerment Self Defence and a founder of ESD Global, the international network that promotes, trains and accredits teachers of Empowerment Self Defence. She joined us virtually for day of presentations, discussion and data analysis.
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Murphy, B. in collaboration with the Kia Haumaru Training and Evaluation Team (2024) A suit of training materials and workshop presentations for ongoing professional development and teacher training on a range of topics including: Trauma-informed teaching, intersectionality in the classroom, gender inclusive language, coordinating group physical and verbal action, effective classroom management, challenging victim blame and other beliefs that perpetuate violence, and kaupapa Māori values in practice. Not publicly available.
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Tupaea, A. (2024) Te Māuri o te Wahine: Report on the Development of Kia Haumaru’s Kaupapa Māori Personal Safety and Empowerment Programme.
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Mackenzie, G. (2023). Kia Haumaru Class Participant Reflections Video. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/psyc/research/research-lab-sites/talk-and-the-body/publications
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Mackenzie, G. (2023). Using Talk and the Body to Prevent Gender-based Violence: Project Introduction Video https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/psyc/research/research-lab-sites/talk-and-the-body/publications
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Wolmaran M (2022) The Construction of Reasonable Force: “Anything you have to do to be safe”. Summer Scholar Gold Poster, Victoria University of Wellington.
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Bowen S. (2022) Overcoming Gendered Stereotypes in Empowerment Self-Defence. Summer Scholar Gold Poster, Victoria University of Wellington.
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Te Moananui, C. (2021). Using Our Bodies and Our Voices: The enactment and demonstration of weakness and strength. Summer Scholar Gold Poster, Victoria University of Wellington.
More research on Kia Haumaru programmes:
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Jordan, J., & Mossman, E. (2016). Skills for Safety: An evaluation of the value, impact and outcomes of girls’ and women’s self defence in the community. Read the full report here or the Executive Summary here
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Murphy, B. (2018). Fighting Back on Feminist Terms: Empowerment Through Self-Defence Training in Neoliberal Times. In R. Overell & C. Dale (Eds.), Orienting Feminism: Media, Activism and Cultural Representation (pp. 71–94). Palgrave.
International research on Empowerment Self Defence:
