15 Facts About Ruby Hunter

Ruby Hunter was born on 31 October 1955 near Renmark in South Australia.

One day, when Ruby Hunter was eight years old, Wally was taken off the street by government officials, and then the men took the rest of the children from their home, under the pretext that they were being taken to the circus.

Thereafter Ruby Hunter lived in institutions and foster care, as one of the Stolen Generations.

Ruby Hunter was placed in Seaforth Children's Home in the Adelaide seaside suburb of Somerton Park, and later with a foster family.

Ruby Hunter met her partner for life, Archie Roach, at the age of 16, while both were homeless teenagers, at the Salvation Army People's Palace, on Pirie Street, Adelaide.

Ruby Hunter first performed in public in 1988 during a festival at Bondi Pavilion in Sydney, where she performed "Proud, Proud Woman," the first song she had written.

In 1994, Ruby Hunter became the first Indigenous Australian woman to record a solo rock album, and the first Aboriginal woman signed to a major record label, when she released her debut album Thoughts Within.

Also in that year, Ruby Hunter appeared in a feature-length documentary film, Land of the Little Kings, which told the stories of Indigenous children affected by being forcibly removed from their families.

In 2001 Ruby Hunter made her acting debut in the award-winning feature fiction film One Night the Moon, directed by Rachel Perkins and starring Paul Kelly.

In 2005, Ruby Hunter was invited by Deborah Conway to take part in the Broad Festival project, with three other Australian female artists, where they performed their own and each other's songs.

Ruby Hunter said that her proudest achievement was keeping her family together as a stable unit.

Ruby Hunter died of a heart attack on 17 February 2010, aged 54.

At the 2020 National Indigenous Music Awards, Ruby Hunter was inducted into its Hall of Fame.

Ruby Hunter is featured wearing pelican feathers, with Roach explaining that she was a pelican in the Dreamtime and that her spirit has returned to being a pelican.

In 2023, the Roach and Ruby Hunter authored book Songs from the Kitchen Table was released, including lyrics, stories, photographs.