Summary

Letter from the Department of Immigration, South Africa to Lindsay Motherwell, notifying him that the Minister of the Interior has withdrawn his permanent residency rights and therefore he cannot enter South Africa without a new visa, which is he is unlikely to be given due to his marriage to Sylvia. It is dated 24 February, 1970. This item is one of seven documents relating to Lindsay's permanent residency (HT 56326 HT 56363 HT 56364 HT 56365 HT 56366 HT 56367). Lindsay Motherwell was a drummer who travelled through Africa playing music, and settled in South Africa from 1967-1969, before returning to Australia via London.

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.

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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