Summary

Card from Sylvia to Lindsay, dated 27 May 1969 in response to a letter written to her by Lindsay from the ship R.M.S. Windsor Castle. She states that she burnt her hand and so a friend is writing the letter for her. She also references the fact that Lindsay won the fancy dress competition on board, and mentions several friends of theirs. Lindsay had sailed ahead to London, with Sylvia to follow by plane so that they could get married.

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

Card, on the front a photo of a front door.

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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