Ruby Hunter (31 October 1955 – 17 February 2010) was a Ngarrindjeri/Kukatha/Pitjantjatjara woman from South Australia.
Ruby met her life long partner Archie Roach who discovered her first written songs hidden in their hostel room. Archie recorded Ruby’s song ‘Down City Streets’ on his debut album but Ruby became the first Aboriginal woman to release a solo album in 1994 with her debut ‘Thoughts Within’. Her second album ‘Feeling Good’ was released in 2000 and garnered Ruby Best Female Performer of the Year at the Deadly Awards. Hunter first performed in public in 1988 during a festival at Sydney's Bondi Pavilion in Sydney, where she performed "Proud, Proud Woman," the first song she had written. In 2010, she wrote the autobiographical Down City Streets, which was performed by her partner Archie Roach on his debut solo album Charcoal Lane.
Ruby has played alongside Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman, and Bob Dylan, and performed at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music Festival and in recent years has collaborated with Archie and composer Paul Grabowsky on several projects, notably the Australian Art Orchestra project ‘Ruby’s Story’.