Item MM 151152 Photograph - Sylvia & Lindsay Motherwell At Social Function, Melbourne, 1970s

Summary

Black and white photograph of Sylvia and Lindsay Motherwell at an unknown social function in Melbourne during the 1970s. Sylvia, with long hair and looking quite young, is wearing a white coat while Lindsay is wearing a plaid jacket. Lindsay and Sylvia were a very active social couple who enjoyed music, theatre and social gatherings.

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

Male and female couple, man wearing a plaid jacket, a floral tie and his wedding ring is visible. Woman has long hair, looks very young and is wearing a white coat.

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.