Indigenous Australian pens invite to Jamie Oliver to visit and cook with her remote community
As Jamie Oliver has become known for his fight for healthy eating around the world, an Indigenous Australian woman has invited him to do the same in her backyard.
Julie Bangun, who lives in the Aboriginal community of Wadeye in the Northern Territory, penned a letter on the NACCHO Aboriginal Health Facebook page on Apr. 8.
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Bangun has invited Oliver to teach her community about healthy eating and cooking, while along the way trying some of the local bush tucker. It'll be an exchange of skills that she writes the community will be "pleased" to be a part of.
Bangun is a fan of the British chef, cooking from Oliver's books and the DVDs that she owns. However, she admits she finds it very difficult to find the produce she needs for the recipe in her remote town's store.
"I am a big fan of your cooking, but at our Wadeye community store there are not many ingredients, as all things are shipped in," Bangun writes. "I sometimes go to Darwin (a long way and expensive trip) and there I try to buy different and interesting ingredients."
Wadeye is located in the tropical Daly River region, an area with plenty of bush tucker that is traditionally eaten by the community according to Bangun, including "turtle's eggs and meat, coconuts, crabs, bush nuts, Kakadu plums and wild fruits."
No word on Oliver yet if he'll be making a visit, but Bangun explains the potential everlasting effect a visit from the chef could bring.
"Being healthy means our kids have a better chance in life, and your visit would help make our community strong for the future and ensure our kids to grow up healthy and deadly," she writes.
Oliver's publicity told Mashable Australia via email that the Australian arm of Jamie's Ministry of Food has already been in contact with Bangun.
After all, it's surely an offer that Oliver can't refuse.
UPDATE: April 15, 2016, 1:45 p.m. AEST Added comment from Jamie Oliver's publicity.
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