AUT team wins prestigious Marsden grant
Auckland University of Technology has been awarded a sought-after research grant from the Marsden Fund.
The $670,000 grant will enable an AUT team led by Professor Denise Wilson to carry out important research into family violence – in particular, the methods Māori women use to protect themselves and their children in unsafe intimate relationships.
The research seeks to challenge the common perception that Māori women are passive victims of domestic violence, and to facilitate better care for those at risk.
Despite the fact that they are at greater risk of serious harm or death from partner violence than other New Zealand women, Professor Wilson says Māori women are often characterised as neglectful mothers, submissive victims, and perpetrators of violence alongside their partners or ex-partners."
“In reality, many Māori women actively resist and navigate violence in unsafe partner relationships, in order to stay safe and protect their children,” says the AUT Professor of Māori Health.
Professor Wilson was motivated to further investigate the tactics they used as a result of her work with the Family Violence Death Review Committee, and foundation research she had conducted on the topic alongside international collaborators. It was clear that most women who were tragically killed or hurt were far from passive, in spite of the deliberate acts of abuse inflicted on them to intimidate, threaten and control.
Such misconceptions are a barrier to progress, according to Professor Wilson. “To provide more effective help for women in abusive relationships, we need to better understand the complex context in which they live and start thinking differently about whānau violence.”
The study will involve kaumātua, kuia and Māori women, and will produce new knowledge of how Māori women protect themselves and their children today, as well as insights into how harmony prevailed in hapū prior to colonisation and urbanisation.