Kanak people
When he arrived in New Caledonia, Maurice Leenhardt was welcomed by these words from the mayor of Nouméa: "What have you come to do here? In ten years there will be no more Kanaks." He applied himself to the fight against this slow genocide; he combatted the alcoholism that slowly ravaged the Kanak people. He translated the "New Testament" into the Houaïlou language with the help of his first students.