Summary
Small blue cloth suitcase, brought to Melbourne by Sylvia Motherwell when she migrated to Australia with her husband Lindsay on the Sitmar Line "Fairsky" in 1970. The case features a Central African Airways logo, as well as the Sitmar Line baggage label.
Sylvia Boyes (a South African-born orphan) and Lindsay Motherwell (a Melbourne-born drummer) met in Cape Town, South Africa in 1967 through their theatre connections. They fell in love but due to apartheid laws were forced to leave South Africa to marry in London. They subsequently relocated permanently to Melbourne in 1970.
Physical Description
Small blue cloth suitcase with white plastic handle and white and brown plaid interior lining. Some damage to outer zipper.
Significance
Statement of Historical Significance:
This collection provides a significant opportunity to represent political and personal freedom as a motivation for migrating to Australia within the international context of both apartheid in South Africa and the end of the White Australia policy in Australia. The personal narrative is well documented and the objects provide a material way to follow the lives of both Lindsay and Sylvia, both separately and where they coincide in South Africa and onwards together to Melbourne. While this is ultimately a love story, it plays out through the collection against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa, sixties London and an increasingly multicultural Australia.
More Information
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Collecting Areas
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Original Owner
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Inscriptions
Lid: CENTRAL AFRICAN AIRWAYS Baggage Label: SITMAR line
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Classification
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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Object Dimensions
420 mm (Width), 290 mm (Depth), 100 mm (Height)
Measurements of suitcase lying flat with lid on top.
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Keywords
South African Immigration, Travel, Transport, Shipboard Travel, Air Transport, Luggage, Apartheid, Racism, Marriage Customs & Rites, Immigration Policies