Jamie Oliver & How To Write Inclusivity Correctly

Having a heart to write stories that are inclusive is good. But if you don’t do it correctly it can backfire badly.

Take for example, the recent Jamie Oliver debacle. Jamie Oliver has approximately thirty-three books to his name. All of them recipe or food related books. What with opening and running restaurants, doing TV shows, and fighting for decent school lunches, one wonders how he finds the time to create a library of books to help home cooks move beyond bangers and mash. He’s been phenomenally successful.

So why would he venture into fiction?

Boredom, perhaps? The fact that he has five children, all with names that are at best creative, or at worst the possible result of smoking the parsley, may also have something to do with it. And there’s absolutely no reason why anyone shouldn’t have an adventure and try something new. His first children’s book was, Billy And The Giant Adventure. The book also includes recipes!

Which brings us to his latest book. It’s Part 2 of the eponymous hero’s adventures titled, Billy and the Epic Escape. And it’s not a short book either. It’s a 400-page fantasy novel.

If you’re quick, you’ll still see it on some bookseller websites. But not for long. On a tour to promote the book, Jamie was confronted with the hard truth of what happens when you don’t do your research properly. As it’s a fantasy book, Jamie could have created a culture from which to draw one of his characters. He didn’t. According to the BBC website, the book features, ‘an Aboriginal girl with mystical powers living in foster care who is abducted from her home in central Australia’. Anyone who knows anything about the history of Australia would immediately be concerned. And it’s as bad as it sounds.

First Nations leaders were outraged.

The book:

1. Contained language errors – Ruby is described as being from Mparntwe or Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. But her vocabulary is derived from the Gamilaraay people’s language. They live in the states of New South Wales and Queensland.
2. Reproduced harmful stereotypes of First Nations people.
3. Oversimplified the identity of First Nations character Ruby.
4. The superficial treatment of Ruby’s character dehumanised her, and by extension, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
5. Trivialised the painful and complex history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tens of thousands of Indigenous children who had been forcibly removed from their families under government assimilation policies that continued into the 1970s. Even today Torres Strait Islander children are ten times more likely to be put into foster care, than non-indigenous children. The abduction of Ruby as the plot of the book is obviously completely insensitive given this history.
6. Reduced the First Nations’ complex and diverse belief systems to ‘magic’.

Before publication, Jamie Oliver had asked his publishers, Penguin Random House, to consult with Indigenous Australians. This wasn’t done, they claim, because of an ‘editorial oversight’. Which raises questions as to who wrote the book – Jamie Oliver, or a ghost-writer employed by the publisher.

The Fallout

Jamie Oliver is not unfamiliar with controversy. Whether he wrote the book or not, mud sticks. And it will stick to him. Not the publisher, not the ghost-writer if there was one. To him. One controversy too many can be the downfall of even the most resilient of people. Will this be that controversy? To his credit, Jamie Oliver, who was in Australia promoting yet another cookbook at the time, has pulled the book off shelves globally. He said that he was devastated to have caused hurt and has apologised for it.

How Not To End Up In The Same Situation

1. Do proper research
   Before you write stories with characters or plots that are not of your own culture, it’s always best to do deep research, to talk to people from that culture, to work at understanding their point of view not only of the plot or characterisation you’ve written, but also of their history, beliefs, culture etc.
2. Use appropriate alpha readers
   Once you have written the book, the only people whose opinion of the book matters, is the people of that culture. This is also true if the book is an illustrated children’s book. Has your illustrator fallen back on stereotypical features? If you’re not sure, ask someone of that culture. If they say yes, have your illustrator redo his work. Only once the alpha reader has vetted the book and or illustrations should you then ask other people for their opinions.
3. Don’t rely on your publishers. Do your own research. If your name is on the cover, you are responsible for the content inside. Even if you are using a ghost-writer, you need to check the facts they’ve included. You need to talk to people within the culture featured in the book to ensure you, or your ghost-writer, are creating characters that are sympathetic to that culture.
4. The buck stops with you
   Writing or illustrating people of other cultures and beliefs in order to be inclusive needs to be done with care. Not to just ‘be inclusive’.

The Last Word

If you would like to learn how to write books that have an important message, sign up for a course with Writers Write It’s the perfect place to learn.

by Elaine Dodge. Elaine is the author of The Harcourts of Canada series and The Device Hunter. Elaine trained as a graphic designer, then worked in design, advertising, and broadcast television. She now creates content, mostly in written form, for clients across the globe, but would much rather be drafting her books and short stories.

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