Summary

Envelope addressed to Mrs M. Motherwell in London from the Chief Migration Officer, 19 December 1969. It accompanies the letter which relates to her future migration to Australia with her new husband, Lindsay. Lindsay and Sylvia met in South Africa, married in London and then relocated to Australia to start their lives together.

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

Envelope addressed to Mrs M. Motherwell, Flat G/22, Monmouth Road, Bayswater, London, W.2. Reads "ON HER MAJESTY'S SERVICE" on the front. Return address printed on the envelope on the back says "If not delivered return to Chief Migration Officer, Office of the High Commissioner for Australia, Canberra House, 10-16, Maltravers Street, Strand, London, W.C.2." There are stamps on the front stating that postage was paid, and it was sent on 19 Dec 1969.

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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