Summary

Newspaper, 'Sunday Express' published in Johannesburg on 17 March, 1968. The largest image on the front page is one of Dr Philip Blaiberg, the world's first surviving heart transplant patient. The article itself is on the back page. Dr Blaiberg's surgery was performed by Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Sylvia Boyes worked at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town in the kitchen from 1955, after she moved out of Leliebloem House at age 18.

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

Newspaper with large image on the front page is one of Dr Philip Blaiberg, the world's first surviving heart transplant patient. The other photo is of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, in relation to the gold rush crisis. Other articles cover international relations, housing costs, economic crisis, a kidnapping, fashion, weddings, kidney transplants, university disputes, tragedies, modern medicine, working conditions, court cases, copper finds, education, election results, the 'gold rush', race, British politics, Olympics controversy, Rhodesian politics, energy, railway lines, mental health issues, Zambian spies, hoaxes, CCTV, economics, television, books, sports, theatre & music, the Home Journal (a short story, children with MS, gardening, letters, weddings), films & art, real estate and jobs.

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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