Children’s book cut over First Nations portrayal
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has pulled his new children’s book from the shelves after complaints that it stereotyped Indigenous Australians.
The 400-page fantasy novel Billy and the Epic Escape, which was published earlier this year, features an Aboriginal girl with mystical powers living in foster care who is abducted from her home in central Australia.
Some First Nations leaders have called the book “offensive”, saying it contains language errors and contributes to the “erasure, trivialisation, and stereotyping of First Nations peoples and experiences”.
Oliver – who is currently in Australia promoting his newest cookbook – has apologised and said he is “devastated” to have caused hurt.
“It was never my intention to misinterpret this deeply painful issue,” he said in a statement.
The book’s publisher, Penguin Random House UK, said Oliver had requested Indigenous Australians be consulted over the book, but an “editorial oversight” meant that did not happen.
Among the complaints is that the character is given the ability to read people’s minds and communicate with animals and plants because “that’s the Indigenous way”, which Sharon Davis from the national First Nations’ education body said reduces “complex and diverse belief systems” to “magic”.
The girl is also at the centre of an abduction plot – something community leader Sue-Anne Hunter called a “particularly insensitive choice”, given the “painful historical context” of the Stolen Generations. For decades in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids were removed from their families as part of an assimilation policy from successive governments.
The girl, who is from Mparntwe or Alice Springs, also uses vocabulary from the Gamilaraay people of NSW and Queensland, which Ms Davis said showed “complete disregard for the vast differences among First Nations languages, cultures, and practices”.
“There is no space in Australian publishing (or elsewhere) for our stories to be told through a colonial lens, by authors who have little if any connection to the people and place they are writing about,” Dr Anita Heiss, a Wiradyuri author and publisher told the Guardian Australia.
Oliver said he and his publishers had decided to withdraw the book from sale around the world.
A statement from Penguin Random House UK added: “It is clear that our publishing standards fell short on this occasion, and we must learn from that.”
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