In 2026, The Big Issue celebrates its 30th birthday – the perfect time to revisit our fave stories from the past three decades. This edition, we’re rewinding to the NAIDOC Week right after our very first birthday, when a profile of the late musical power couple Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter appeared in our second ever edition.
Remembering Archie and Ruby
by Andrea Ho
Separating Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter from the rehearsal studio is no mean feat. Just when you think the battle is won, in walks another old friend with whom, like family, they can’t pass up a chat. This time it’s Kev Carmody. Archie detaches himself first, and as he waits in the hall for Ruby, a young woman asks if she may address Archie and Ruby as ‘uncle’ and ‘auntie. “I’m not comfortable with ‘Archie’,” she says, ducking her head a little. ‘‘‘Uncle’ has more respect. It’s what they do in my culture.”
It’s an indication of how Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter are esteemed, both as musicians and people. Anyone acquainted with either of Archie’s solo albums, Charcoal Lane and Jamu Dreaming, or Ruby’s album Thoughts Within, will be familiar with both musicians’ style and form. The songs are stories, many with hard messages based on their own experiences.
They’re set in a solid, easily digested acoustic folk framework, a style that often belies the harsh experiences life has dealt Archie and Ruby; the songs deal with Aboriginal children taken from their parents, alcoholism, dispossession, living on the streets and the cultural survival of Aboriginal people.
Their recent involvement with Sing Sing – a Next Wave collaboration between artists from Papua New Guinea, the Torres Strait Islands and black and white Australia – is the latest step in their growing body of work using indigenous music. The pair have participated in every Australian WOMAD festival, where they have experimented with the musical styles of performers from around the world.
“It’s good to try something different,” said Archie, who appreciated the chance to play with Papua New Guinean musicians such as George Telek (who featured on the Not Drowning, Waving album Tabaran).
For Ruby, the Sing Sing musical collaboration has forged a meaningful cultural connection, especially with the women of Port Moresby. It was the first time they had ever seen an Aboriginal woman perform, and Ruby would like to return, at the invitation of local women.
A desire to create that sort of connection is fuelling Ruby’s next project, a restaging of a large-scale festival of Aboriginal women, Hot Jam Cooking. This concert of Aboriginal women performers was first held in Richmond in the early nineties, and it was here that Ruby gave one of the first solo performances of her own material. The same gig saw an unnamed trio of women singers perform in public for the first time. After their set Ruby suggested they name themselves sisters, or Tiddas.
Ruby’s idea for the next Hot Jam Cooking is to expand the event and make it a celebration of family. “The way I see it, there are quite a few festivals outside Melbourne that are taking our women from this area, and so now we have to restabilise and say, ‘No, it’s alright, you can come into our area now’,” says Ruby. “We just want to have a strong base here and say, ‘Yes, we do have a community that we come from, this is our community.’”
“There’s nothing really happening in Melbourne,” adds Archie. “This would be a good foundation to establish something annual or biannual or something. It’d be good to have women artists from other areas brought down, so other women who don’t tend to travel will get a chance to see this sort of thing. We come back and always talk about things. Perhaps they can have a chance to see them for themselves.”
The more Archie and Ruby talk about women, family and bringing people together, the more it seems that they have adopted an almost parental responsibility for many aspects of their community. They seem flattered by the suggestion. “I think it’s part of our nature,” Archie reflects. “I’ve often said, ‘why me? There’s other artists around, playing basically the same thing I do.’ But there you go – some people can see something some-where, you know, someone dead or starving, and walk away unaffected somehow. And others can get so hurt, so cut up and torn by other people’s suffering. I don’t know why.”
Ruby admits she relies heavily on family support. “I love [the boys] because they sacrifice their love for their mum and dad to be able to share them with a lot of people. I envy them for being the way they are; I respect that. Their mum and dad are here, but their mum and dad are sharing their love with other people too. If my boys appreciate what we do, well then it’s all right. If my brothers and my sisters, they’re not saying anything’s wrong about me going out and singing my songs and sharing my strength with others, then I know it’s not wrong. If a family is hurt, they’ll all feel it. If a family is happy, they’ll all feel it. See? So you can either have a happy family or a sad family. But to have the family there – that’s the most precious thing.”
First published Ed#2
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