diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyarrow/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyarrow/default.nix
index 51841a10d6fc..4c7777bce022 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyarrow/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyarrow/default.nix
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
   setuptools,
   setuptools-scm,
   oldest-supported-numpy,
+  tzdata,
 }:
 
 let
@@ -116,8 +117,6 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     "pyarrow/tests/test_csv.py::TestThreadedCSVTableRead::test_cancellation"
     # expects arrow-cpp headers to be bundled.
     "pyarrow/tests/test_cpp_internals.py::test_pyarrow_include"
-    # Searches for TZDATA in /usr.
-    "pyarrow/tests/test_orc.py::test_example_using_json"
     # AssertionError: assert 'Europe/Monaco' == 'Europe/Paris'
     "pyarrow/tests/test_types.py::test_dateutil_tzinfo_to_string"
     # These fail with xxx_fixture not found.
@@ -163,6 +162,13 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   disabledTests = [ "GcsFileSystem" ];
 
   preCheck = ''
+    # Prepare r/w zoneinfo that test_orc can then copy and modify.
+    export TZDIR="$TMPDIR/zoneinfo"
+    cp -R "${tzdata}/${python.sitePackages}/tzdata/zoneinfo" "$TZDIR"
+    chmod -R u+w "$TZDIR"
+    substituteInPlace pyarrow/tests/test_orc.py \
+      --replace-fail "Path('/usr/share/zoneinfo')" "Path('$TZDIR')"
+
     export PARQUET_TEST_DATA="${arrow-cpp.env.PARQUET_TEST_DATA}"
     shopt -s extglob
     rm -r pyarrow/!(conftest.py|tests)