Summary

Black and white close-up photograph of Lindsay and Sylvia Motherwell dressed formally for a night out, 1970s. They are looking at each other lovingly. Lindsay is wearing a suit and Sylvia is wearing a cream satin gown with a flower on her shoulder. The collection also holds this dress worn by Sylvia (HT 56448). Lindsay and Sylvia were brought together by their mutual love of music and theatre.

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

Close-up of man and woman in front of a patterned tile wall. They are looking at each other. He is wearing a suit and she is wearing a cream satin gown with a flower on her shoulder.

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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