The original Sapphires women - Naomi Mayers, Beverly Briggs, Lois Peeler and Laurel Robinson - called on global petitioners against the sexist and racist U.S. DVD version of their biopic to be release on Tuesday in U.S. The women particularly called on advocates on race rights to boycott the said DVD version.

The movie titled The Sapphire tackles the story about how the four Aboriginal singers formed their group, took their show to Vietnam, and in the long run, overcome racism and sexism during 60 and 70s. The movie had won 11 Australian Academy of Cinema and television Awards. The Aboriginal characters are played by actress Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell

The alleged racist and sexist cover featured the four women on the background, while Irish actor Chris O'Dowd, who played as their manager, was embossed in the foreground.

Through a letter addressed to the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People, the women uphold their claim to have the DVD cover changed, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The letter was penned by the chairman of the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service, Sol Bellear, on the women's behalf.

"As I'm sure you can appreciate, the treatment of people of colour in Australia mirrored much of the trauma to which people in the United States were subjected. That trauma - and much of that treatment - remains alive and well in Australia today, as I know it does in the United States."

"The US cover of the DVD completely misses this point, and in fact reinforces precisely the bigotry that Naomi, Beverly, Lois and Laurel fought so hard against. We're hopeful that the NAACP - with its long and proud history of advocating strongly for the interests of people of colour - will add its significant voice to call for the DVD cover to be changed."

Ms Mayers, chief executive of the Redfern AMS, put emphasis on the fact that the DVD cover was disrespectful.

"What has upset us is that the DVD cover appears to miss that point [of the film] entirely. It's disrespectful to the very talented young aboriginal actors in the film, and it's disrespectful to us as a group. But in particular, it's disrespectful to women of colour everywhere who have stood up against this sort of thing all their lives. We are very proud of our work with the Sapphires and we are proud of the film. We hope that the US distributors of the DVD stop and think about how their depiction of that work might be received, and that it motivates them to reconsider the cover artwork before the DVD is distributed," Ms Mayers said.

Meanwhile, a report from The Courier Mail said that prior to the original Sapphires' petition, it was Melbourne fan Lucy Manne who started a social media backlash against Anchor Bay for its racist and sexist cover. Ms Manne spearheaded the fans' petition for the cover to be changed.

"The Sapphire's is about to be released on DVD in the US, which is great. Not so great is the cover which features a huge photo of a male supporting character, with the female stars of the show relegated to the background (in a weird blue monotone effect, just to add insult to injury). Disgusting," Ms Manne's petition read.

By Sunday afternoon, Ms Manne's petition had already acquired 4,000 signatures.

Mr O'Dowd agreed with the petition, saying that the cover from Anchor Bay was "vile".

"Yup, that's pretty vile. Certainly not my choice. It's ridiculous, it's misleading, ill-judged, insensitive and everything the film wasn't.

Ms Mauboy, on the other hand, said he had no issues about the cover.

"It doesn't cross my mind, we all had a part and all had a moment and we all loved it. We were in each other's lives for almost a year and we were all very thankful of each other and that it went to America."