RN Documentary: A Conversation with Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter

This poignant half-hour brings us close to the experience of this couple, both musicians of similar heart-rending background. Ruby describes the experience of being taken from her aboriginal home, put in a car, told she was going to see the circus, and instead ending up in a foster home. Archie was fourteen before he learned the truth of his own past, and simultaneously learned that his real mother had just died – his foster parents were told his family had died in a fire. Ruby and Archie met on the streets where they gathered with other aboriginals living on the margins of society. Their lack of bitterness is remarkable. The Australian narrator’s empathy and respect are clear. She lets their words, spoken and sung, carry the piece, but steps in to provide context, ask questions, and draw parallels between their music and country and western and blues music. As the program ends, the narrator expresses the hope that former struggles over land rights will be transformed into a uniting factor, because love of the land is something shared by all. What I’ll remember is Archie talking about the destruction of tribal people forced to see land as an economic base rather than a spiritual one, and the soft sound Ruby makes after she says, “Our homelands became national parks.” In many ways their story evokes our own country’s treatment of Native American children and could be included in programming on indigenous cultures. Would also fit with programming on family, community, music, survival, and racism.