AustLit

'Indigenous singer, performer and songwriter Ruby Hunter was born by a billabong in the Riverland region of South Australia. At the age of eight she was forcibly removed at night from her extended family and told that she was being taken to the circus. For years afterward Hunter was placed in various foster homes and institutions and suffered the many traumas associated with being separated from her Aboriginal family.

In her late teens she met Archie Roach at the Salvation Army drop-in centre in Adelaide...Hunter was inspired by his music, learnt to play the guitar and began to write her own songs. ...In 1994 she released her debut album, Thoughts Within. The album launched her career as a performer and songwriter in her own right.

Hunter continued to tour with Roach both nationally and internationally in the next decades and released her second album, Feeling Good, in May, 2000. Hunter's songs and music reflect her personal history, women's issues, social issues and indigenous issues. In 2000 she appeared with Roach in The Land of Little Kings, a feature length documentary about the experiences of indigenous Australians who were removed from their families as part of the "stolen generations". In 2001 Hunter made her acting debut as the tracker's wife in the Australian film One Night the Moon.' Source: http://nla.gov.au/ (Sighted 07/12/09)

Discography:

• 1989 - Koori (with Archie Roach ow)& Wayne Thorpe)

• 1994 - Thoughts Within

• 2000 - Feeling Good

• 2005 - Ruby (with Archie Roach, Australian Art Orchestra & Paul Grabowsky)