The Hokule‘a made landfall Sunday in Nova Scotia on its trek around the world.

It was the canoe’s first stop in Canada in more than two decades. The canoe’s last visit was in 1995 when it reached Vancouver, British Columbia.

Local leaders and community members welcomed the crew in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, early Sunday morning, including Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood, according to a release from the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

Mi’kmaw Nation members attended in traditional garb and performed cultural dances and rhythmic drumming. A Mi’kmaw representative presented feathers to each Hokule‘a crew member as a symbol of peace and unity.

“This makes me believe that we’re more alike than we’re different,” said Nainoa Thompson, master navigator and voyaging society president, during the arrival ceremony. “When we come here and you tell us to come to your place, and thank us for being here, and for being happy — that’s aloha.”

Chief Deborah Robinson of the Acadia First Nations, which encompasses five Mi’kmaw reserves, said, “The preservation of our environment and conservation of the resource is of utmost importance to us as the Mi’kmaw. We all have the same goal, in ensuring a future for our children, and for children for generations to come.”

The Mi’kmaw are one group within the Wabanaki Confederacy in the eastern region of North America.

Before arriving in Canada, the crew spent about a week in Maine, visiting with other members of the Wabanaki Confederacy.

Crew member Maya Saffery said in a blog post that the crew called out in Hawaiian to ask permission of the Wabanaki to disembark in Mount Desert, Maine, and come ashore. She said the crew was invited to Indian Island, a reservation for the Penobscot Nation, which is part of the confederacy, and there she witnessed moving acts of “aloha aina,” or love of the land.

“They created an environment for their children where they can grow up being proud of being Penobscot and expressing that identity through song and dance,” she wrote. “By simply drumming, singing and dancing together, they were proclaiming as Wabanaki without hesitation that they, the people of the dawn, are not only surviving, but thriving.”

The canoe will stay in Nova Scotia for about six days.

The Hokule‘a is on a journey around the globe for its Malama Honua Worldwide Voyage and projects finishing its roughly four-year tour in June.

After visiting Canada, the crew will sail back to New York and up the Hudson River. From there the crew is looking at sailing to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and possibly up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. The Hokule‘a will return to Hawaii via the Panama Canal.