Jamie Oliver has shared a touching moment with an Aboriginal activist after his second children’s book, Billy and the Epic Escape, was pulled from Australian shelves.
The British chef, 49, made the decision to following condemnation of its ‘damaging and disrespectful’ Indigenous plot.
Oliver sat down for an interview with 10 News First’s Narelda Jacobs this week, during which he shared an embrace with Mundanara Bayles, the Managing Director and co-founder of the BlackCard.
The pair had shared a long video call the day prior, during which they talked over the issues raised by the First Nations community, with Bayles admitting tears were shed through the emotional chat.
‘I’m a massive believer that when in life you get things wrong, you can run away from it and just put your head under the soil and just pretend it didn’t happen,’ a clearly moved Oliver told Jacobs.
‘I genuinely believe in this book, I genuinely believe in its intention and I’m going to take a moment to learn and then see what happens.
‘I’m going to learn, I’m going to reflect and my intention would be to do something special out of this.’
Bayles said that some good had come of the entire episode, with Oliver ‘shining a light globally’ on the struggles of First Nations people in Australia.
While Oliver said he had learned much through the process, it was nonetheless a ‘painful’ experience.
‘It’s been very painful this whole debacle. So I go home tonight having learnt some stuff and hopefully we’re going to do something quite special from this moment of reflection.’
Oliver said he had come to understand why there was backlash against the book.
‘I understand it was offensive, and that’s why it was even more painful to me, because that was never the intention,’ he said.
‘I didn’t see… So I’ve had to learn about that…I never would have put those things together, and of course, I never would have seen them as stereotypes, but that’s why we pulled it. So let’s pull it. Let’s take a beat. Let’s reflect.’
Oliver has issued two apologies over his fantasy novel, that sees its villain abduct a young Aboriginal girl from foster care in a chapter titled ‘To Steal a Child’.
‘It wasn’t designed for any reason…obviously my knowledge of the stolen nation wasn’t there,’ he said. ‘[If it had been] I wouldn’t have written it quite like that,’ he said.
‘It really wasn’t – in my mind – connected with any knowledge of the terrible things that have happened in Australia’s history.’
Billy And The Epic Escape came under fire from The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation (NATSIEC).
The education body called for the book, a 400-page fantasy novel for primary school children, to be removed from circulation.
The Natsiec chief executive, Sharon Davis, criticised implications that First Nations families ‘are easily swayed by money and neglect the safety of their children’.
Last Sunday, Oliver and publisher Penguin Random House UK announced they had pulled the book from shelves in all countries where it holds rights, including the UK and Australia.
This news came after Oliver issued an own apology for ‘stereotyping’ Indigenous Australians in his second children’s book, which was published in May.
‘I am devastated to hear I have caused offence and wholly apologise for doing so,’ Oliver told The Guardian in a statement.
‘I am listening and reflecting and working closely with my publisher on next steps.’
The celebrity chef is currently in Australia promoting his latest cookbook, Simply Jamie.
‘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.’
Notably, the chapter titled To Steal a Child appears to be a reference to The Stolen Generations, a dark period of history where the children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government.
For about a century, thousands of Aboriginal children were systematically taken from their families, communities and culture.
‘These children were taken by the police; from their homes; on their way to or from school,’ per the Healing Foundation. ‘They were placed in over 480 institutions, adopted or fostered by non-Indigenous people and often subjected to abuse.
‘The children were denied all access to their culture, they were not allowed to speak their language and they were punished if they did. The impacts of this are still being felt today.’
‘[It] perpetuates a racist stereotype that has been used to justify child removals for over a century,’ NAITSEC chief executive Davis said.
‘This portrayal is not only offensive but also reinforces damaging biases.’
Oliver and his publisher have admitted that there was no consultation with Indigenous Australians prior to the book’s publication.
Penguin Random House UK apologised for the ‘editorial oversight.’
Davies said the book ‘perpetuated harmful stereotypes’ and that its depiction of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was ‘irresponsible’.
‘We urge Penguin Books and Jamie Oliver to recognise the impact of their content and take swift action to prevent further harm,’ she told The Guardian.
‘Penguin Books should pull Billy and the Epic Escape from circulation, specifically removing all content involving First Nations characters and cultural references.’
The book is Oliver’s 2024 follow-up to his 2023 children’s book debut, Billy and the Giant Adventure.
The story takes place in England, but features a subplot of a young First Nations girl who is living in foster care, before being stolen by the book’s antagonist from her Indigenous community, near Alice Springs.
The book also contained errors because Oliver had attempted to use Indigenous words from the Arrernte language of Alice Springs and the Gamilaraay people of NSW and Queensland.
Oliver is currently in Australia to present a live chat about his new book Simply Jamie at Sydney’s Coliseum dubbed Jamie Oliver: The Joy of Cooking.
Oliver first rose to fame on The Naked Chef cooking show, which ran from 1999 to 2001.
His television and publishing career has seen him sell more than 46million books globally, and reach an estimated worldwide TV audience of 67million.
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