How actor Jim Moriarty built a papakāinga for his whānau in Wellington’s Island Bay

As told to Sharon Stephenson|Homed

June 27, 2026 • 4:00am

The six carvings were created for a play by Hone Tuwhare, In the Wildness Without a Hat. Actor Jim Moriarty salvaged the timber for these carvings from the old Wellington waterfront and they were used in a play by Hone Tuwhare. After the production was over, Moriarty ended up with the carvings which now sit on the deck of his family’s main house in Island Bay, Wellington.

Jim Moriarty has been on our screens and stages for more than 60 years, almost as long as he’s lived in his current home.

The actor/director and founder of New Zealand’s longest running independent Māori theatre company, Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu, Moriarty (74, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitane) lives in Wellington’s Island Bay with his wife Helen Pearse-Otene, a registered psychologist, playwright and co-leader of Te Rākau.

JIM: I bought this house 45 years ago when I was acting in the TV series Close to Home. I didn’t have much money but I really wanted to live in this house.

The seller’s mother had to approve the buyer and she’d turned down other offers but she held my hand and said, “He’s the one.”

Back then it was a tiny two-bedroom cottage built around the 1940s. It had been tided up a bit but I always envisaged it as a papakāinga-style arrangement where extended whānau could live together.

I have eight children and six mokopuna and over the years we’ve extended the house so that it’s now eight bedrooms, four bathrooms and two large lounges. We’ve added another storey but also drilled down, adding a room underneath the house.

Three of my children, their partners and their children live here now.

After my first marriage ended, I bought the small cottage next door because I wanted to be near my kids. It was built in 1927 and had been abandoned.

It was pretty much in its original state so over the years we’ve insulated and re-jibbed it, fixed the floor, the wiring and the plumbing. It still pretty much looks like the original cottage though.

It’s where Helen and I now live. We all go between the houses and have this lovely intergenerational community. But it’s also big enough that we can have our own space whenever we want it.

The lovely thing is that this is my tribal Māori land where my ancestors once lived. My biggest claim to fame is that I believe I’m the southernmost Ngāti Toa inhabitant in the North Island.

I also love that we’re so close to the sea. Every day I go out and either swim or breathe in the sea air. After I gave up studying for a law degree I worked as a psych nurse for years and know how much breathing in the sea air can help to stabilise mood.

Helen joined me in the theatre company 30 years ago and our kids grew up in green rooms and travelling around the country as we performed at schools, marae and prisons, as well as at professional theatres. I’m thrilled that my two youngest children Hariata, a lawyer and actor, and her brother Tamati, who has done a psychology degree, have set up a production company Hurō Productions, who we’re partnering with for Waenga.

This play is about people trying to land in their purpose on earth and celebrate that. We’ve toured it around schools and various festivals, including in Australia, and we’re hoping we can get some interest to turn it into an eight-part television series.

Have I ever been tempted to sell this house? I like architecture and enjoy seeing what people do, or don’t do, to their homes.

But I’ve been on this same piece of land for 45 years, and hope that my children and their

children will be after me. I’ll be here until I take my last breath.

[ARTICLE https://www.thepost.co.nz/home-property/361013835/how-jim-moriarty-built-papakainga-his-whanau-wellingtons-island-bay]