Maurice Leenhardt (9 March 1878 – 26 January 1954), was a French pastor and ethnologist specialising in the Kanak people of New Caledonia.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Protestant authorities concerned themselves with the evangelisation of the Kanaks, in competition with the Marist Brothers.
Maurice Leenhardt was named pastor in 1902 in New Caledonia where he founded the "Dö nèvâ" mission in the valley of Houailou.
He applied himself to the fight against this slow genocide; he combatted the alcoholism that slowly ravaged the Kanak people.
Following a second stay of nearly ten years in New Caledonia, he began teaching Oceanic languages at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in 1944.