Jamie Oliver has withdrawn a kids’s guide he wrote from sale after criticism that it stereotyped First Nation Australians.
In his guide, Billy And The Epic Escape, the TV chef tells the story of a First Nations lady dwelling in foster care in an Indigenous neighborhood who will get kidnapped by the novel’s villain.
However the Nationwide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Training Company (Natsiec) blasted the guide for contributing to the “erasure, trivialisation, and stereotyping of First Nations peoples and experiences”.
The physique’s chief government, Sharon Davis, stated the guide “ignores the violent oppression of First Nations people” and that its depictions of First Nations folks and cultural practices had been “irresponsible and damaging, reflecting a profound lack of understanding and respect”, in accordance with The Guardian
In an announcement, Oliver, 49, stated: “I’m devastated to have induced offence and apologise wholeheartedly.
“It was never my intention to misinterpret this deeply painful issue. Together with my publishers we have decided to withdraw the book from sale.”
A spokesman for writer Penguin Random Home stated: “It is clear that our publishing standards fell short on this occasion, and we must learn from that and take decisive action.”
The chef revealed his first kids’s guide, Billy And The Large Journey, final 12 months and stated in a social media put up that he had “carefully chosen the font to make sure the text is as clear as possible” as folks with dyslexia, which Oliver has, can discover it onerous to learn.
He’s additionally well-known for fronting a number of TV sequence together with Jamie’s Straightforward Christmas (2022), Jamie Cooks The Mediterranean (2023) and Jamie: Quick And Easy, which started airing on Channel 4 final month.
At the beginning of his profession, he was generally known as The Bare Chef, after his 1999 guide and TV sequence of the identical identify.
