Summary

Letter from Trevor Pretorius to Sylvia and Lindsay Motherwell, dated 26 June 1992. It came in white envelope HTA 56382. Trevor and Sylvia both grew up in Leliebloem House, a Cape Town orphanage. Lindsay and Sylvia Motherwell always stayed in contact with their old friends from South Africa after they moved to Australia in 1970.

The letter mostly discusses the political and economic situation in South Africa and a short update on various friends and Mrs Zuidema as well as Trevor's life. It mentions racial discrimination, crime, friend's travelling, unemployment, sanctions, travel, Mrs Zuidema's death, Chinese mafia, fruit grocers, flea markets, the opera, medical issues, recession, weather and Sylvia's birthday.

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

Four-page letter written on lined notepaper. It is addressed to Sylvia & Lindsay and dated 26 Jun 1992. Each page after number one is numbered II, III and IV.

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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