A British celebrity chef says he is ‘hurt’ about his fake book.
British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has pulled his latest best-selling children’s book after complaints it contributed to a negative view of Aboriginal Australians.
Oliver, who is in Australia to promote his latest cookbook, said he was “hurt” that his thriller Billy And The Epic Escape had offended him and apologized “from the bottom of my heart”.
“It was not my intention to misrepresent this very painful issue,” Oliver, 49, said in a statement.
“We met with my publishers and decided to withdraw the book for sale.”
Publisher Penguin Random House said its publishing standards had “fallen on this occasion” and “we must learn from that and take decisive action”.
Set in England, Billy and the Epic Escape features a subplot featuring an Aboriginal girl who is kidnapped while living in an orphanage in Alice Springs in central Australia.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation, Australia’s apex body for indigenous education, led calls for the book to be withdrawn, telling The Guardian that the book was “disrespectful” and contributed to the “erasure, suppression and mistreatment of First Nations”.
Natives also criticized the book for combining different Native languages and discussing child abduction, given the history of the “stolen generations,” referring to the thousands of Native children who were forcibly taken from their families and placed in foster care under policies that continued until the number of Native children was considered abduction. 1970s.
“While Oliver has apologized, the impact of such misrepresentation on First Nations children and communities cannot be underestimated,” said Sue-Anne Hunter, an Indigenous woman and professor at Federation University in Victoria, in a post on Instagram.
“It fuels a dangerous stereotype and the dangers of reinforcing colonial narratives at a time when we should be amplifying authentic Indigenous voices and stories.”
Oliver, who launched his first children’s book Billy And The Giant Adventure last year, is best known for his cookbooks and food-related television shows, including Naked Chef, which ran for three seasons on the BBC from 1999 to 2001.
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