Ruby Hunter (1955–2010), singer/songwriter, was a Ngarrindjeri/ Kukatha/ Pitjantjatjara woman from South Australia. Taken from her family at age eight and raised in foster care, Hunter was sixteen and homeless when she met Archie Roach at a Salvation Army drop-in centre. They were inseparable partners for life. The first Aboriginal woman signed to a major record label, Hunter released her first album, Thoughts within, in 1994. Her second, Feeling good, won her the Deadly Award in 2000 for female artist of the year. She made her acting debut in One Night the Moon (2001) directed by Rachel Perkins and starring Paul Kelly. She won the Deadly Award for outstanding contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music in 2003 and with Roach and Paul Grabowsky won another in 2004 for Ruby’s Story. Both solo and with Roach, Hunter recorded and performed with many top Australian and international acts. She and Roach won the Sydney Myer Performing Arts Award in 2009. Following her death at age 54, Archie Roach established the Ruby Hunter Foundation to continue her work in supporting and celebrating Indigenous arts and culture.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
© Jacqueline Mitelman
A photographic portrait of the singer/song writer, Ruby Hunter by Jacqueline Mitelman, created in 1996 and printed in 2012. The image measures 43 cm high by 34 cm wide with a white border on all sides, mounted in a narrow wooden frame. The colour tones range from chalky white to velvety black.
The image depicts Ruby’s softly lit face and shoulders emerging from a dark background, jet black apart from a beam of silvery light above her head on the left. Her shoulders are slightly turned towards her right whilst her face is turned towards us.
Wrapped around her head is a headband woven in the design of the Aboriginal flag, with a black stripe across the top and a grey stripe along the bottom, with a lighter-coloured circle in the centre. Pinned in the middle of the circle is an oval dark stone surrounded by little white beads. Attached further to the right is a brooch, shaped like a leaf with a border of tiny sparkly diamantés.
Ruby’s round face is framed by a mass of dark hair which merges into the black background. Her curly fringe pokes out randomly from under her headband and covers most of her forehead. She has plucked arched eyebrows, obscured by her hair. Her deeply set dark eyes gaze intently at us; stripes of light reflect in her pupils. Smooth plump cheeks and a broad nose with wide symmetrical nostrils are framed by deep crease lines from the outer edges of her nose around the corners of her closed mouth. Although her full lips are drawn slightly downwards, there is a hint of a smile.
Two tightly bound cords capture a small bunch of emu feathers. They hang from beneath her hair on to her shoulders, one on either side of her face. The feathers on her right side are soft and indistinct, slightly out of focus, where the one on her left is sharply in focus – the delicate details of each feather, very apparent. They rest on her chest just below her collarbone. She wears a well-worn cotton collared shirt, lightly creased with the top couple of buttons undone.
Audio description written by Sally Dawson and voiced by Alana Sivell, 2021
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Australian photographer, Jacqueline Mitelman, discusses her process for creating portraiture.
Featuring striking photographic portraits of contemporary figures from the National Portrait Gallery collection, The Look is an aesthetic treat with a lashing of je ne sais quoi.
