[3] At the time of her birth, her parents were living in tents on Goat Island, having come to the Riverland to find work after the Swan Reach mission had closed in 1946.

[4][2] As a child Hunter lived with her brothers, Wally, Jeffrey and Robert, and sister Iris, with their grandmother and grandfather at the Aboriginal reserve at Point McLeay (later called Raukkan) on Lake Alexandrina in the Coorong region of South Australia.

[5] One day, when Ruby was eight years old,[6] Wally was taken off the street by government officials, and then the men took the rest of the children from their home, under the pretext that they were being taken to the circus.

[8] Hunter met her partner for life, Archie Roach, at the age of 16, while both were homeless teenagers,[8] at the Salvation Army People's Palace, on Pirie Street, Adelaide.

Also in that year, Hunter appeared in a feature-length documentary film, Land of the Little Kings, which told the stories of Indigenous children affected by being forcibly removed from their families.

[13] In 2001 Hunter made her acting debut in the award-winning feature fiction film One Night the Moon, directed by Rachel Perkins and starring Paul Kelly.

[18] In October 2004 a new concert, once again a collaboration with Roach, Grabowsky and the AAO, entitled Kura Tungar – Songs from the River, premiered at the Melbourne International Arts Festival,[19] which was directed by Robyn Archer that year.

[20] The concert, which was directed by Patrick Nolan, told stories from the two performers' lives, and featured songs about the Murray River and Ngarrindjeri Country, Ruby's home.

[19] In 2005, Hunter was invited by Deborah Conway to take part in the Broad Festival project, with three other Australian female artists, where they performed their own and each other's songs.

[40] The National Indigenous Music Awards recognise excellence, innovation and leadership among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians from throughout Australia.

[42][43][27] The Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards commenced in 1984 and recognise outstanding achievements in dance, drama, comedy, music, opera, circus and puppetry.