On May 1, 1976, Hōkūleʻa left Hawai’i on a voyage to Tahiti, to retrace this traditional migratory route. Thirty-three days after she left Maui, Hōkūleʻa entered Pape’ete Harbor in Tahiti. Seventeen thousand people came down to greet the canoe-over half the population of the island. When the canoe got to the black sand beach, so many children climbed onto the back of the canoe that its stern sank. People couldn’t see past the crowd, so they climbed into the trees. What had begun as a scientific experiment to prove a theory about the settlement of Polynesia, had touched a deep root of cultural pride in Polynesian people. It was a spontaneous reaction on the part of these people who had maintained their language and genealogies, and who knew the names of their great navigators and great voyaging canoes, but who no longer had a canoe. So when Hōkūleʻa entered the bay she was a powerful symbol that reminded them of the greatness of their culture and their heritage and therefore themselves.