It’s not often that former colonies extol the contributions of past invaders, occupiers, and missionaries—and, in the same breath, celebrate the indigenous peoples who have seen it all.

But Taiwan Uncensored, one of five exhibitions of visual art on view this weekend as part of TaiwanFest, honours Dutch, Canadian, and Japanese influences in that island nation, and also highlights the traditions of its first peoples. Although Taiwan’s Austronesian indigenous groups comprise only two percent of the country’s population, they have maintained a number of tribal and ceremonial customs.

The paintings, posters, and photographs in Taiwan Uncensored accord with the festival’s “world in an island” theme, revealing the many-stranded cultural influences behind Taiwan’s majority Chinese population. Taking place at the Plaza of Nations this weekend (August 30 to September 1), TaiwanFest also features aspects of the country’s music, dance, culinary arts, artisanship, and “fusion” arts.

“Taiwan Uncensored is about the histories of Taiwan,” says Vancouverite Sherry Wang, “and about how a lot of different foreign cultures have helped shape the culture that we see in Taiwan today.”

Wang is speaking by phone from Toronto, where she has been assisting with that city’s TaiwanFest. A medical researcher at Vancouver General Hospital and postdoctoral student in cell biology at UBC, Wang is a long-time volunteer with Vancouver’s annual Taiwanese cultural festival.

She’s also, apparently, a quick-study art historian. Wang’s assignment this year was to research the images in Taiwan Uncensored and to function as a kind of docent, answering questions from the viewing public during the exhibition.

“It’s interesting to learn about many aspects of our culture through volunteering,” Wang says, explaining her commitment to the festival and the Taiwan Uncensored project. The word uncensored in the exhibition’s title has to do with “uncovering history” that the standard textbooks don’t document, she adds. Much here will be a revelation to festival goers.

Of the 49 works in the show, 14 are paintings chronicling the life and contributions of George Leslie Mackay, a Canadian missionary. Mackay, who arrived in northern Taiwan in 1871 and remained until his death in 1901, is honoured for his commitment to the Taiwanese people and for the schools, churches, and hospital he founded. Some of the paintings on view, Wang says, are studies for mosaics planned for the exterior of the new Mackay Memorial Medical College in Taipei.

Also in Taiwan Uncensored are images documenting the impact of Dutch colonizers in Taiwan in the 17th century and Japanese colonizers in the first half of the 20th century. The Japanese are acknowledged for establishing banks, railroads, electrical power, shipping facilities, and irrigation systems in Taiwan during their rule.

If older generations of Taiwanese harbour any resentment toward their former occupiers, it isn’t expressed here. “I think people appreciate some of the infrastructure that was left behind,” Wang muses. “Even though we were colonized, there were still some great developments that helped move us along to a more modern, civilized society.”