The newspaper The Guardian reported on Saturday that the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation criticized Billy And The Epic Escapewhich was released earlier this year, for using a series of tropes and stereotypes about indigenous Australians, including their relationships with the natural and spiritual worlds.
The group criticized one of the fantasy novel’s subplots, which tells the story of a young indigenous girl placed in foster care, for contributing to the “erasure, trivialization and stereotyping of peoples and experiences of First Nations.
In a statement, Mr Oliver, 49, said he was “devastated” at having offended people and apologized “wholeheartedly”.
“It was never my intention to misinterpret this deeply painful issue,” he said. “Together with my publishers, we have decided to withdraw the book from sale.”
Indigenous activists were particularly shocked that neither Oliver nor his publishers, Penguin Random House, consulted them before the novel’s publication.
“It is clear that our publishing standards were not met on this occasion, and we must learn from this and take decisive action,” the publishing house said. “That is why we have agreed with the author, Jamie Oliver, to withdraw the book from sale.”
Mr Oliver, who is in Australia to promote his latest cookbook, is one of a long list of celebrities who have put their names to children’s books, a trend which has been criticized by many book authors for children, who feel that they are being squeezed out of their market.
Mr. Oliver published his first children’s book, Billy And The Giant Adventure (Billy and the Giant Adventure), last year, and said in a social media post that he had “carefully chosen the font to ensure the text was as clear as possible” because people with dyslexia, like him, may have difficulty reading it.
Oliver, who rose to prominence in 1999 with his book and television show The Naked Chefhas long campaigned for children’s food and nutrition and caused an outcry in 2005 when he attacked the nutritional content of some meals served in UK schools.
