As a tourist destination, Rabaul is popular for its volcanoes, scuba diving and for snorkelling sites, spectacular harbour and other scenery, World War II history, flora and fauna, and the cultural life of the Tolai people.

The Tolai are the indigenous people of Rabaul, who are known to be close kin to the people of New Ireland. It is believed that the Tolai migrated to the region where they established their community with a colorful set of traditions, culture, and beliefs.

May 13, 2010 · Rabaul, once a pocket handkerchief of a town of spectacular beauty and great convenience, is now split into three well-separated parts -- a situation partly redeemed by the sealed road built by AusAID to connect them.

Aug 20, 2023 · Rabaul is home to some of Papua New Guinea's most iconic traditional cultural symbols, from the mysterious and sacred Duk-Duk and Tumbuan of the Tolai people, who typically arrive in canoes on the water at dawn, to the spectacular fire dances of the Baining people which take place in the jungle after dusk.

IN 1980, after 20 years working in Papua New Guinea, the Rev Neville Threlfall was asked to write a history of Rabaul. Most of the written records of Rabaul were destroyed during the Pacific War in the early 1940s and by 1944 the town was obliterated by Allied bombing.

Culture has been preserved, protected and practiced far longer than the first Explorers, Traders and Missionaries sighting of New Britain Island back in the 18 th century. We have been devastated by 2 Volcanic eruptions and 2 World Wars. Despite all that, our cultural heritage and its disciplines have kept us intact.

May 1, 2024 · Here’s my overall experience and photos of the village, volcanoes and native people. Rabaul Village is built on the volatile Rabaul Caldera, with 2 active vents or volcanoes: Mt. Vulcan and Tavurvur. And it sits on the shores of Simpson Bay.

Within weeks of the war ending in September 1945, the terrible tragedy that had befallen Rabaul and Montevideo Maru became clear. Hundreds of men had died in Rabaul and more than 1000 had perished in the sinking of the ship. The overriding need of grief-stricken families was to learn what had happened to their men.

Jan 28, 2020 · This Samoan–American introduced coconut to Papua New Guinea in the late 1800s, threw epic parties and “gave herself to the local people”, as Lawrence delicately words it. Queen Emma is reflective of the ethnic diversity of Rabaul, then and now.

The “Tolai” are the indigenous people to the Rabaul area and they are ethnically close kin to the peoples of adjacent New Ireland and are thought to have migrated to the Gazelle Peninsula in relatively recent times, displacing the Baining people who were driven westwards.