As many as 751 unmarked graves, some of which are believed to be of First Nation children, were discovered in Canada’s Saskatchewan province just weeks after a similar discovery in British Columbia, prompting a fresh reckoning over the country’s colonial past.

The graves were found on the site of the Roman Catholic Marieval Indian residential school, and Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess First Nation has asked for an apology from the pope and the church.

From the 19th century, more than 150,000 First Nations children were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a programme to assimilate them into Canadian society, many were beaten and verbally abused, and thousands died from disease, neglect and suicide