Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operative has received funding from the state government to pilot the new approach, which will work with Aboriginal perpetrators and their families.

Dallas Widdicombe, BDAC’s general manager of health and wellbeing, said the program was based on the concept that Aboriginal perpetrators of family violence had also been victimised at some point in their life.

Together with the Centre for Non-Violence, BDAC will run two 12-week programs in a cultural setting.

“We’re trying to create a safe environment for Aboriginal men to express their feelings and become who they want to be,” Mr Widdicombe said.

Related: How violence can affect marginalised and disadvantaged women

He said the program would focus on cultural healing.

“One of the underpinning parts of the program we feel is important for success is that someone needs to love themselves before they can love their family,” Mr Widdicombe said.

But the program would also encourage participants to understand their behaviours, he said, own their experiences of being a parent and a partner, and make the connection between their own childhood experiences and their actions.

Related: ‘Preventable’: Report sheds light on gendered nature of family violence homicide in Australia

Partners and children affected by family violence will be included in the program, with a family services worker to be employed to work directly with them and other relevant services.

Mr Widdicombe said the main difference in this approach was that it was led by Aboriginal people, for Aboriginal people.

“It’s really exciting, it’s a new space for us,” he said.

“We think this can really make a difference in a lot of local families.”