Summary

Aerogram written by Mary Legget to Lindsay and Sylvia Motherwell on 17 August 1994. It is a general chatty letter which provides informationabout Lindsay and Sylvia's lives as well as the situation in South Africa. Lindsay and Sylvia Motherwell always stayed in contact with their old friends from South Africa after they moved to Australia in 1970.

The letter includes details from Mary's life, and a response to updates in Lindsay and Sylvia's lives. Mary provides a flower exporting company's details, references Lindsay buying lottery tickets, as well as some stories about everyday life in South Africa. She references Trevor as a mutual friend, and wishes Sylvia a happy birthday. Mary also discusses the political situation in South Africa and Lindsay and Sylvia's upcoming visit.

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

Letter written on letter paper-envelope combination document.

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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