Jamie Oliver pulls book from shelves amid criticism over portrayal of Indigenous Australians

The Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday that the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation had exploded Billy and the epic escapewhich was released earlier this year, for using a range 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, about an Indigenous girl living in a foster family, for contributing to the “erasure, trivialization and stereotyping of First Nations people and experiences.”

In a statement, Oliver, 49, said he was “devastated” that he had caused offense and apologized “with all my heart”.

“It was never my intention to misconstrue this deeply painful issue,” he said.

“Together with my publishers, we have decided to withdraw the book from sale.”

Indigenous activists were particularly appalled that neither Oliver nor his publishers, Penguin Random House, consulted with them before publishing the novel.

“It is clear that our publishing standards have fallen on this occasion and we must learn from this and take decisive action,” the publisher said.

“With this in mind, we have agreed with our author, Jamie Oliver, to withdraw the book from sale.”

Oliver, who is promoting his latest cookbook in Australia, joins a long list of celebrities who have put their name on children’s books, a trend criticized by many children’s authors, who say they are being squeezed out of the market.

Oliver published his first book for children, Billy and the giant adventurelast year and said in a post on social media that he “carefully chose the font to make sure the text was as clear as possible” because dyslexic people like him can find it difficult to read.

Oliver, who became famous in 1999 with his book and television show Naked chefhe has long advocated for children’s food and nutrition and caused a storm in 2005 when he attacked the nutritionism of some school dinners in the United Kingdom.