Summary

Black and white photograph of Lindsay Motherwell with his bandmates, all posed at their instruments, circa 1940s. The initials 'LM' are visible on the face of Lindsay's bass drum. The location 'Lorne, Victoria, Australia' is written on the back. Lindsay was a drummer from the age of 15 and played in a variety of bands across Rhodesia and South Africa in the 1950s and 1960s.

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.

Description of Content

Group of young men posed at their musical instruments, including guitars, drums and piano

Physical Description

Black and white photograph

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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