Rabaul caldera in Papua New Guinea erupted catastrophically in September 1994, destroying the town of Rabaul and forcing the relocation of the provincial capital. The simultaneous eruption of two vents within the caldera produced massive ash clouds that disrupted aviation and damaged infrastructure across East New Britain Province. Approximately five people died, but economic losses were substantial.

The Rabaul eruption affected indigenous communities in East New Britain whose oral traditions and contemporary Papua New Guinean poetry reflect on displacement and environmental transformation. PNG writers like John Kasaipwalova and Kumalau Tawali have incorporated volcanic imagery into works exploring Melanesian identity, colonial disruption, and the relationship between traditional cosmologies and modern disaster experiences in Pacific Island literatures.