I’m not sure what’s worse: the over the top rants regarding either minor or non-existent misunderstandings of Australian aborigine culture in a children’s book, or the abject, groveling apologies from the author and publisher.

Prominent First Nations writers have also criticised the book, accusing Oliver of engaging in cultural appropriation, and his publisher, Penguin Random House UK, of making serious errors in judgment.

The award-winning Kooma and Nguri author Cheryl Leavy, who specialises in nonfiction, poetry and children’s literature, told Guardian Australia she was troubled by the book’s themes of child slavery and child stealing, and the appropriation of culture for personal gain.

“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.”