his ancestors from the Dreamtime whose totem is the perentie lizard. The scenes in his paintings are from the places he travelled as a boy with his family in the central Australian desert. Dawson was a member of the Executive Committee of Desart for several years until November 2006. In June 2006, he travelled to Paris for the opening of the Musée du quai Branly. He was there with the Australia Council for the Arts as a representative for Aboriginal Australian art. Death Dawson died some time at the start of January 2007, while driving with his nephew (Jarman Woods) across the Great Victoria Desert. They had spent Christmas with relatives in Kalgoorlie and were returning home by a long, isolated track in the desert. The track between Kalgoorlie and Irrunytju is over , a journey that they had made many times before. Their car got a flat tyre some time after leaving Coonana. They were reported missing on 8 January at Tjuntjuntjara, the next community on their route. The two men died of dehydration. Dawson was also a diabetic, which made him much more vulnerable in the extreme heat. His body was found on 12 January, a little over two weeks after they left Kalgoorlie. It was found close to the car, about east of Kalgoorlie. Woods' body was found a few kilometres further away. References Year of birth uncertain 2007 deaths 1930s births Indigenous Australian artists Artists from South Australia