Summary

Australian passport belonging to Lindsay Motherwell. It was issued in 1969 in London and valid for five years. It includes a black and white photograph of Lindsay. It also contains stamps from his exit at Southampton and a visit pass from Singapore in 1972. Lindsay was a drummer from Melbourne who travelled through Africa in the 1950s and 60s before marrying Sylvia Boyes from South Africa, and then returning to Australia with her.

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

Australian passport containing personal details and a black and white passport photograph. It states that he was born in Melbourne on 1 January 1927 Australia. He was 5ft 5in, with brown eyes and brown hair. It also contains stamps from his exit at Southampton and a visit pass from Singapore in 1972.

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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