‘Truly loved’ Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter to be celebrated with lakeside monument

Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter recorded award-winning music together and have played shows with the likes of Bob Dylan and Patti Smith.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains images of a person who has died.

But in South Australia’s Riverland, their work fostering Aboriginal young people may be what they are best known for. 

Aunty Ruby, a Ngarrindjeri woman, was born in the Riverland at Paringa, while Uncle Archie, a Gunditjmara and Bundjalong man, was born in Mooroopna, Victoria. 

Both taken from their families as part of the Stolen Generations, the couple met in an Adelaide Salvation Army centre while they living on the streets.

They would go on to play shows and release music together until Ms Hunter’s death in February 2010. Uncle Archie is still playing shows across Australia.

After moving to the Riverland town of Barmera, the couple dedicated their lives to supporting Aboriginal youth and fostered 33 local children without any government support. 

Erawirung woman Cheyrl Norris was one of those people who found important support from Aunty Ruby and Uncle Archie.

“Back in that day and age when she took me under her wing, if you weren’t black you weren’t allowed to be black,” she said. 

“They had a saying back then that if you weren’t black you weren’t black enough to be black.

“Aunty Ruby changed all that and helped me accept everything and not listen to anyone else.

“From that day on, she totally changed my life and I became the Aboriginal person that I am today.”

Couple ‘well and truly loved’ 

The Berri Barmera Council, after advocacy by the Aboriginal community, has approved a monument on the edge of Barmera’s Lake Bonney to celebrate the couple’s work.

The installation will include mosaics of a pelican and a hawk designed by Ms Hunter’s sister-in-law Rosslyn Richards. 

It will include a QR code that visitors can use to read up on the couple’s contribution to the Riverland. 

A movie on their lives is also in production. 

Ms Norris said it was set to cost about $15,000, money which would need to be fundraised by the community.

“The quicker we can get the money the better because we want to get it done while Uncle Archie is still with us,” she said. 

“Aunty Ruby and Uncle Archie to this day are still well and truly loved, and Aunty Ruby is one person who will never ever be forgotten.”

‘A great honour’

The tribute to Mr Roach and Ms Hunter will be the first public monument or memorial recognising the achievements of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person in the Riverland.

Ms Norris hoped more would be established across Australia. 

“As far as we know there’s none anywhere in Australia where we know of where people like Aunty Ruby and Uncle Archie are honoured, except for Mabo,” she said. 

“It is a great honour to do this for them.”

Australian National University history professor Bruce Scates said the monument’s approval is a step forward for recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history across the country. 

“It’s high time we cease to revere those great white men in our past and that we acknowledge the enormous contribution that Indigenous Australians have made to this country,” he said. 

“Moreover, we [need to] celebrate their survival through those traumatic centuries of dispossession and I can’t think of two more worthy individuals in that part of the country.”