Pepene Eketone

Who is Pepene Eketone?

Pepene Eketone was a New Zealand interpreter, native agent, assessor and politician. Of Māori descent, he identified with the Ngāti Maniapoto iwi. He was born in Taranaki, New Zealand in circa 1856.

He sometimes used an English name, which was based on missionaries, and was thus known as Fairburn Eggleston or Fairburn Eccleston. He was politically active and contested his first general election in 1890, when he stood in the Western Maori electorate and came second after the incumbent, Hoani Taipua. In the 1896 election, he was one of 13 candidates in the Western Maori electorate and came seventh.