On January 15 last year, Tongan resident Marika Moala was walking her dog along the beach when she noticed a "very weird" cloud formation on the horizon.
"My dog kept barking and I'm like, 'What's wrong, are you hungry or something?'" she said.
"I told my sister 'There's something really weird. There are these big clouds. It's growing and when we arrived at her house, the mushroom cloud was on top of us."
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai erupted in the early hours of the evening, sending shock waves around the world — the sounds so loud they were heard in Canada.
The once-in-a-thousand-year volcanic eruption propelled ash and rock into skies above Tonga's largest island, Tongatapu, before a tsunami inundated low-lying areas.
Solomone Finau was initially struck by the noise.
"It was like when you go in the plane your ears couldn't hear anything … it was too loud."
Sia Uhila Angilau initially thought the sound was thunder but grew more and more concerned as the explosions intensified.
"You could feel the pressure in your ears, like your ear drums are going to burst. That's when it finally dawned on me that this is not thunder, it doesn't work that way," she said.
"It shook the house, I felt like the glass [windows] were going to break [and] we were going to be injured in the house.
"Then [we knew] it is the volcano and there is going to be a tsunami coming … the first thing is just to run."
One year on
The eruption and ensuing tsunami destroyed homes, business and farms, and killed five people. Authorities in Peru blamed the tsunami for the drowning of two swimmers.
In an emotional speech at a commemoration ceremony on Sunday, government minister Samiu Kuita Vaipulu said Tonga was still recovering from the disaster.
"As we mark this first anniversary of this disaster, it is almost impossible to comprehend the power, the magnitude of the eruption," he said.
Church services were also organised by the Tongan diaspora in Australia.
Brisbane broadcaster and Tongan community leader Sulieni Layt said pausing to reflect over the weekend "brought up a lot of emotions".
"[It's] also a time to look at the support the diaspora has put together over the past 12 months through taking supplies back to Tonga in containers and monetary support," he said.
A photo exhibition was also launched at the Queen Salote Memorial Hall in Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa.
"[There were] displays of photographs showing the relief effort and the damage of different areas up to today rebuilding the natural and physical infrastructure," Mr Layt said.
"It was an opportunity for the public and various departments to come together to walk through those displays and reflect on the journey of what had occurred."
AFP marks anniversary
Australian Federal Police and Defence personnel were there in the immediate aftermath of the disaster and continue to work with local communities and partners, including Tonga Police, on recovery and reconstruction efforts.
"AFP officers from the mission were on the ground when the waves from the tsunami washed across the capital," the AFP said in a statement.
"They assisted Tonga Police with the immediate rescue effort, patrolling the streets, searching for stranded people and providing first aid to the injured."
Detective Superintendent Kathryn Polkinghorne – who helped coordinate the AFP's response to the crisis– remembers the enormous uncertainty in the hours after the eruption.
"My first thought went to our [AFP] members in country, hoping they and their families were safe, closely followed by our Tonga police partners and the [broader] community," she told the ABC.
She said the AFP is still helping local communities rebuild and recover, but it has been a long process.
"My understanding is that it has been very challenging in a COVID world, with supply lines being interrupted. That has hampered recovery efforts," she said.
"But the recovery efforts are ongoing. It's about working with our partners in the ground [to work out] what their requirements are."
Displacement and resettlement
The communities on the inhabited islands closest to volcano, Atata and Mango, were displaced by the disaster and lived in church halls for a year.
Just before the anniversary late last year, they were relocated to new houses on Tonga's largest and most populated island, Tongatapu.
Mr Layt said while the resettlement process had gone "quite smoothly", the communities continued to face trauma from being displaced.
"[Some people] are longing to go back to their islands ... their ancestors are buried on those islands, there's unique links ... some were fishermen and now they've been moved to completely different locations," he said.
"There's a lot of psychological damage that people have experienced that even now, we haven't seen the full impact of."
Former Atata island resident Elsiva Tuivai's new chapter on the main island began on Christmas day.
"I am happy they give us land and the house, I am happy for that," she said.
"Our new home is very nice, but we grow out own food. I just grow a little food beside my home, some taro and banana."
But finding work and managing living costs in the city has been a challenge.
"I try to find my own job, but it's very hard because we live far away from town and we have to go by our own car or by bus. We don't have money to spend for our fees," she said.
"When I lived on Atata, I worked in the little resort there so I walk morning or afternoon to work, but here I go by bus or car.
"It's hard for me because we have to spend money for the power, for the water and the food. But in Atata, it's free, it's very different."
The joy was mixed with feelings of grief, because she will never be able to return to her true home.
"My house was gone, everything gone, we just come to the mainland by boat," she said.
