Summary

Letter from Lindsay and Sylvia to Trevor and David in South Africa. It was written two days after the apartheid referendum in South Africa, and discusses Australian coverage and life in Australia. Lindsay and Sylvia Motherwell always stayed in contact with their old friends from South Africa after they moved to Australia in 1970.

The letter discusses the apartheid referendum, its coverage in Australia and the Australian governments actions towards South Africa (and the writers' opinions on them!). They mention the Australian recession, but acknowledge that it is worse in South Africa.They are still buying lottery tickets, and they mention coming to Cape Town soon.

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

Handwritten letter from Lindsay & Sylvia to Trevor and David, dated 19/3/92. The writer has put their St Kilda address in the top right corner, and underneath is the word 'EOAN'.

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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