A 134-year-old totem pole began a long journey home to British Columbia on Tuesday after being on display for decades at a museum in Sweden.

A 15-member delegation of the Haisla First Nation was on hand in Stockholm to receive the totem pole.

It is believed to be the first time a cultural artifact has been voluntarily returned directly to a Canadian aboriginal group from a collection outside North America.

This 134-year-old totem pole was brought to Sweden from Canada in the 1920s. (AP Photo/Lars Epstein)

Haisla band members beat drums and chanted as the nine-metre totem pole was loaded onto a truck outside the Museum of Ethnography.

"The old pole has been set free," said Haisla band spokeswoman Louisa Smith. "It is no longer in shackles."

Taken in 1920s

The Haisla erected the pole in 1872 at the mouth of the Kitlope River, north of Vancouver Island, to honour their forest spirit for saving the tribe from a smallpox epidemic.

It disappeared from the site under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s. A Swedish diplomat is believed to have taken the totem pole back home and donated it to the museum, where it has been on display for 77 years.

In return for the original, the Haisla have carved a replacement totem pole for the museum. Smith said the new pole will serve as a symbolic link between the Haisla and the people of Sweden.

The original pole will travel by ship to Vancouver via the Panama Canal. It will eventually be housed in a cultural centre in Kitimat, B.C.