The video profile of a Creek language revivalist trying to keep an indigenous language alive is newly available to watch online on the Southern Spaces website, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published by the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS).
The documentary, “Hearing the Call: The Spiritual and Cultural Journey of Rosemary McCombs Maxey,” is the collaborative project of Craig Womack, an associate professor of English at Emory University who is an Oklahoma Creek-Cherokee Native American literary scholar, and Steve Bransford, senior video producer at ECDS.
The video explores the continuance of the Creek language, spoken by tribal people in Oklahoma and Florida, by focusing on the life of Rosemary McCombs Maxey, a Creek community leader, feminist, and activist. The Southern Spaces post includes a reflective essay by Womack on the challenges and opportunities facing Creek language speakers.
Maxey attended the documentary’s premiere screening at Emory in February 2018.