Known in 1999 from the show «The Naked Chef» («Le Chef No»), the British chef published a book where a man kidnaps a young Aboriginal woman from her foster family. A painful reminder of the past for the natives.
Popular British chef Jamie Oliver stops selling his children’s book due to criticism from Aboriginal people in Australia, who notably accused him of being “disrespectful” of their history. The story of “Billy and the Great Escape” («Billy and the Epic Escape»), a fiction, takes place mainly in England but briefly passes through Australia, where the villain of the book kidnaps a young Aboriginal woman from her foster family, says the Guardian.
This act present in the work aroused the anger of indigenous communities in Australia. A corporation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors considered the work to be “disrespectful” and contributed to “erasing, trivializing and stereotyping First Nations people and experiences”formula to designate the first inhabitants of Australia. This collective called for the sale of the book to be stopped, according to the Guardian.
“Stolen Generations”
“Billy and the Great Escape” was thus removed in “all countries where it holds rights”particularly in the United Kingdom and Australia, its publisher Penguin Random House UK told the English daily on Sunday. Thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were abducted and placed in foster care under an Australian government policy that continued into the 1970s. These cohorts of children are known as the name “Stolen Generations”.
Jamie Oliver, who is in Australia promoting his latest cookbook, said “devastated” for having offended these communities and assured them of having presented to them his “sincere” apologies, again according to the British newspaper. “It was never my intention to misinterpret this deep and painful problem”added the chef to the 11 million subscribers on Instagram, confirming the end of the sale of the work.
“It is clear that our publication standards were not up to par”recognized Penguin Random House UK in a statement. However, it was still possible to order online “Billy and the Great Escape” Sunday. Jamie Oliver, made famous in 1999 by the show «The Naked Chef» («Le Chef No»), has participated in a multitude of television programs and published numerous Books in addition to becoming a widely followed personality on social networks.
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