Tu's conquest of his brothers' domains, already recorded as the origin of humanity's standing over forest, sea and cultivated food, is matched by a living space still marked out in his name at every formal Maori welcome. The marae atea, the open ground in front of a meeting house where a powhiri, the ceremony welcoming visitors onto a marae, begins, is described in Maori protocol as Tumatauenga's own domain; speeches given there are permitted a forcefulness elsewhere considered inappropriate, understood as an expression of Tu's own nature rather than a breach of manners. That domain opens every significant powhiri with a wero, a ritual challenge performed by warriors representing the realm of Tumatauenga specifically. In its full form three challengers approach in sequence: the first lays down a warning baton for the visiting party's leader to pick up, the second a baton simply laid down and retrieved, and the third kneels to lay down a baton that clears the way, then leads the visitors onto the marae itself. Only after this challenge, and the karanga that follows it, do visitors lose the tapu, sacred restriction, that marks first time guests as waewae tapu, sacred feet, and pass from a state governed by Tu into ordinary welcome. The god of war, in this living form, is the gate a peaceful visit still has to pass through.