Penny Gulliver: Queer empowerment through self-defence

Penny Gulliver has has taught self-defence for over four decades. Photo: Sarah Goff-Tunks.

Penny Gulliver was making her way along the Bondi-Tamarama walkway one Sunday in 1990 when the sight of blood-streaked handprints on the cliff-edge caught her eye.

From watching news crews at the scene, Gulliver learnt the handprints were of Thai national Kritchikorn Rattanajurathaporn. 

Rattanajurathaporn, a gay man who had only been living in Australia for four months had been attacked at Mackenzies Point in Marks Park by three youths, who were later charged and convicted of his assault and murder. 

Rattanajurathaporn’s murder was one of many murders and hate crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community, dubbed the ‘gay gang murders’, during the late 1980s and early 90s along the Bondi-Tamarama walkway, which was a popular area for the gay community. 

The attack had occurred just a few blocks from where Gulliver had been living in Bondi at the time. As a self-defence instructor running workshops for women, Gulliver felt compelled to take action. 

“I made a decision. I was going to open it [self-defence workshops] up to the LGBTI community,” she said.

It's been more than 40 years since Gulliver first learnt and started teaching self-defence. 

“It makes me feel like I’m doing my job in the universe.”

A founding member of the Sydney Rape Crisis Centre – now known as Full Stop Australia, who support women affected by domestic, sexual and family violence – Gulliver took part in training to teach self-defence classes in 1975 to women coming through the centre.  

She started teaching the following year, before also learning martial arts, specialising in kung fu and kickboxing.

Gulliver said her approach to self-defence and martial arts has been focused on empowering women.

“It makes me feel like I’m doing my job in the universe,” said Gulliver.

“I came from a very unsafe situation as a child, an alcoholic family.

“I see violence, I’ve seen the way it works in my home… so I think it’s a response to my childhood. I want to make people safer.”

Penny Gulliver has been practicing marital arts for nearly 50 years. Photo: supplied by Penny Gulliver.

Gulliver became a familiar face in homes across the country from the late 1980s, making appearances teaching self-defence on morning television shows including Good Morning Australia and Til Ten. 

During the 1990s Gulliver was approached by her close friend, Peter Watts, a champion in karate and gay man who had been assaulted by a group of men in Circular Quay. 

“He said, ‘can you start a martial arts club for us?’” said Gulliver.

“He didn’t want to start it himself, because he realised after being beaten up… what he was learning was not the key to his safety,” she added. 

Gulliver established Gay Lesbian Martial Arts (GLMA) in the late 1990s –  a club providing a safe and inclusive environment for LGBTQIA+ people and allies to train and compete.

“You don’t have to train like a UFC person to be able to use these skills,” she said.

“You need someone to translate them into terms that you can do with your physicality, and that’s my job.”

Since starting GLMA, Gulliver has also founded the Mardi Gras Martial Arts Championships, and was awarded the Pride in Sport Inclusive Coach of the Year in 2020. 

“My life has been fully committed to change and social justice and the empowerment of women and the gay community.”

A resident of Earlwood for the past nearly 30 years, the Inner West area has become home for both Gulliver and her workshops, now officially called GLMA Newtown Martial Arts.

“I never treated the martial arts very seriously to be honest, because it’s not a money maker for me, and I’d have to give up all this other stuff [self-defence], which is my passion, making people safe and teaching them a short-term course,” she said.

Gulliver’s work has been rooted in her activist past. A radical feminist during the 1970s while studying at the University of New South Wales, she attended numerous LGBTQIA+ events, including the first Mardi Gras parade in 1978.

Gulliver had joined activists protesting for equal treatment of the gay and lesbian community on the morning of June 24, 1978, before marching with around 2,000 people to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community on Oxford Street. 

However, Gulliver recalled the celebration was met with heavy police presence as they attempted to make their way to Kings Cross, resulting in 53 people being arrested.

“I didn’t get arrested, but there’s a very famous photo of me pulling Gail Hewison away from the police,” said Gulliver, referring to a photo that was captured and published by the Daily Mirror.

Gail Hewison (far left) being pulled away from the police by Penny Gulliver (far right) at the first Mardi Gras in 1978. Photo: supplied by Penny Gulliver.

“They had her arms and I had her legs and we were pulling and she kept yelling ‘let me go, let me go’. 

“I didn’t realise she meant me to let her go.”

Gulliver’s focus is now on the 2026 Mardi Gras Martial Arts Championships, a multi-style martial arts tournament. Next February will be her fourth time hosting and directing the event as part of Sydney Mardi Gras.

With next year set to mark her 50th anniversary in martial arts, Gulliver remains devoted to equipping the local and LGBTQIA+ community with self-defence skills they need. 

“My life has been fully committed to change and social justice and the empowerment of women and the gay community.”