The origins of the creative work and kinetic movement.
Kinetic Wayfinding is a creative practice rooted in Pasifika knowledge. It began in the rehearsal room and grew into a methodology for clarity, craft, and culturally grounded work across writing, performance, and digital creation.
I am Iaheto Ah Hi. Tokelauan and Samoan. Actor, writer, director, and creative practitioner based in Tāmaki Makaurau. I founded Kinetic Wayfinding and I carry it forward.
The work started with a monologue. In 1994 I wrote Te Kave Tavale o te Tautai at Toi Whakaari, a story about a wayward youth sent back to Tokelau, developed with his parents’ permission. That monologue became a feature film, a trilogy of plays, and the first novel in a trilogy of books. The seed was planted earlier, in 1992, when Tokelauan elders entrusted me with a mandate to carry knowledge forward with the future of our youth in mind. Everything since has grown from that obligation.
In 2013 Leilani Clarke and I formed Kinetic Wayfinding as a theatre company. Our first production, Digital Winds, was a homage to our daughter. Through creating that work with a cast aged 6 to 26, we discovered that the creative process itself became healing for everyone involved. In 2014 we formalised the methodology through suicide prevention work funded by Waka Hourua. That programme reached 802 participants with 91% positive feedback. The methodology was structured around four Pasifika navigational anchors: Ala, Manava Ola, Malaga, and Inati.
The same rehearsal ethic now carries into publishing and digital authorship. The page is another stage. The reader is another kind of witness.
In 2026 I published three works through Punalei Press: Kinetic Tautai, Book One of Wayfinders of the Digital Moana. The Pehe Anamua: The Song of Ata, a mythology created for the trilogy. And Kinetic AI Wayfinding: Gafa o te Vaka AI, a methodology for relational AI composition grounded in Pasifika epistemology. All are offered as mea alofa, freely available for individuals and communities. Institutional and commercial use requires a relationship-based conversation and agreed licence.
The methodology supports creative development, story building, performance thinking, and collaborative practice across disciplines. It has expanded into an ethical approach to working with AI and is now returning to its origin in performance through the Kinetic Wayfinding Actors Method, a Pasifika-grounded approach to character work that teaches deep inhabitation with clear containment, safe entry, and safe exit.
The stance across all of it is simple. Meaning authority remains human. The craft is relational. The knowledge has a gafa. In Breath. Movement. Alofa.
