Summary

Booklet of stamps sold to support Rhodesia's independence which was declared in 1965, presumably collected by Lindsay Motherwell during his travels around Africa in the 1960s. Lindsay Motherwell was a drummer who travelled through Africa playing music, and settled in South Africa from 1967-1969 before moving back to Australia in 1970.

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

Booklet of stamps, with 'SUPPORT RHODESIA' written on the cover and various slogans about independence printed over maps of Rhodesia on the stamps. The top two stamps from the first 2 pages (of 3) have been used.

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.

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